Jenny Q Chai
Notes by Robert Carl
When you say "composer" to most folks, contrary to musicians' assumptions, the immediate association will be to a singer-songwriter, not a Beethoven slaving away in a garret. And that's one reason that so much of what is still called "classical" music finds itself orphaned from the public. So much of it is instrumental, acoustic, and geared toward concert presentation with the recording as an artifact, a by-product of that event. Most listeners, accustomed to albums (and now even more fragmentedly, downloads) find this not just antiquated, but inconceivable. It's as though the creative process was set in reverse. This situation isn't universal, though; some composers continue to search for a way to make "serious" music comprehensible to a larger public, while not sacrificing its great virtues on the altar of trendiness.
Click on the page to turn it
When you say "composer" to most folks, contrary to musicians' assumptions, the immediate association will be to a singer-songwriter, not a Beethoven slaving away in a garret. And that's one reason that so much of what is still called "classical" music finds itself orphaned from the public. So much of it is instrumental, acoustic, and geared toward concert presentation with the recording as an artifact, a by-product of that event. Most listeners, accustomed to albums (and now even more fragmentedly, downloads) find this not just antiquated, but inconceivable. It's as though the creative process was set in reverse. This situation isn't universal, though; some composers continue to search for a way to make "serious" music comprehensible to a larger public, while not sacrificing its great virtues on the altar of trendiness.
Click on the page to turn it
Victoria Jordanova is such a composer, or even better, such a [total] musician. Born and raised in Yugoslavia, she came to the US for studies in Michigan and New York, as well as an interlude in Paris. Eventually returning to the US, she made her reputation in San Francisco, and currently lives in Los Angeles. From the outset, she has asserted herself as a "creative musician" on the harp. Using extended techniques, improvisation, theater, and technology, she's created a series of pieces that explore the extremes of human experience, in all its passion, darkness, and ecstasy. She's also a committed promoter and advocate of new music, and not just her own (like another great Californian predecessor, Henry Cowell). With her label ArpaViva, she's already released music featuring a variety of composers living and dead, including the monumental Cage Postcard From Heaven. And now, she brings us something new in means, but similar in spirit, with this collection, New York Love Songs.
There are two stimuli for this program. One is the eponymous piece Jordanova wrote in 1997-98, from which we hear four of its six songs. The other is the discovery of a brilliant and fearless young performer, Jenny Q Chai a former student of Anthony de Mare, himself a pianist who has pioneered a practice as both keyboardist and vocalist. Chai continues this new tradition within classical music, one that in fact looks like the most obvious and natural possible to those familiar with pop music.
There are two stimuli for this program. One is the eponymous piece Jordanova wrote in 1997-98, from which we hear four of its six songs. The other is the discovery of a brilliant and fearless young performer, Jenny Q Chai a former student of Anthony de Mare, himself a pianist who has pioneered a practice as both keyboardist and vocalist. Chai continues this new tradition within classical music, one that in fact looks like the most obvious and natural possible to those familiar with pop music.
There are several connective threads throughout this album. One, again, is the use of the pianist's voice in every song. Chai has a pleasing approach to the instrument, terrific intonation, and great dramatic flair. She's able to move from one state to another with seeming ease, morphing from a demonic murderer in one song, to a slightly sadistic lover in another, to a seraph in yet another. Her delivery is naturalistic without the artificiality of bel canto, but never indulges in the sort of slurred or mumbled delivery that can too often pass for "authentic" in the non-classical world.
Another connection is, of course, the theme of love. All these pieces, even the instrumental ones, deal with tenderness, passion, sensuality. The three opening works run a gamut of expression and techniques to deliver their message, and Jordanova's songs have a similar diversity from one to the next. A third connection is Asian: Ashley Wang is from Taiwan, Chai is Chinese, Jordanova's songs set a classic Chinese poem and a text about an erotic encounter in a Chinese laundry, Cage's vocal line in its modal simplicity feels as though it's drifted in on a breeze from the Pacific. And finally there is technology and the way it affects presentation. Very much in the spirit of a popular album, the voice and its balance with the piano is crafted to make a specific, and different, impact in each individual song.
Another connection is, of course, the theme of love. All these pieces, even the instrumental ones, deal with tenderness, passion, sensuality. The three opening works run a gamut of expression and techniques to deliver their message, and Jordanova's songs have a similar diversity from one to the next. A third connection is Asian: Ashley Wang is from Taiwan, Chai is Chinese, Jordanova's songs set a classic Chinese poem and a text about an erotic encounter in a Chinese laundry, Cage's vocal line in its modal simplicity feels as though it's drifted in on a breeze from the Pacific. And finally there is technology and the way it affects presentation. Very much in the spirit of a popular album, the voice and its balance with the piano is crafted to make a specific, and different, impact in each individual song.
Degrees of reverb, multitracking, delay, equalizing all contribute to give each track a specific timbral character that in turn heightens its communicative meaning. The recording is its own autonomous world, and while everything that happens on it can happen in live performance, there will inevitably be differences, and that's just fine.
The first three works are all by canonical composers, albeit from a maverick canon. John Cage's The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs sets James Joyce as a kind of incantation, accompanied by gentle knocks on the piano's body (one of the first pieces to use the piano purely as unpitched percussion, but then not surprising from a composer who three years later wrote 4'33", a work where the pianist does nothing but open and close the keyboard lid three times!). It serves as a kind of prayer and blessing on all to come in the next hour. Charles Ives' Serenity takes John Greenleaf Whittier's religious appeal and sets it with an "endless" ostinato on a couple of chords, an eternal rocking that only opens into more familiar hymn-harmony at the very end. Frederic Rzewski's "Marriage (Mile 58) Section F," is an excerpt from his mammoth ongoing piano collection The Road. With text excerpted from the Tolstoy novella Kreutzer Sonata it breathlessly dashes through the tale of a crime of passion, told from the bewildered eyes of the murderer, and strangely,
The first three works are all by canonical composers, albeit from a maverick canon. John Cage's The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs sets James Joyce as a kind of incantation, accompanied by gentle knocks on the piano's body (one of the first pieces to use the piano purely as unpitched percussion, but then not surprising from a composer who three years later wrote 4'33", a work where the pianist does nothing but open and close the keyboard lid three times!). It serves as a kind of prayer and blessing on all to come in the next hour. Charles Ives' Serenity takes John Greenleaf Whittier's religious appeal and sets it with an "endless" ostinato on a couple of chords, an eternal rocking that only opens into more familiar hymn-harmony at the very end. Frederic Rzewski's "Marriage (Mile 58) Section F," is an excerpt from his mammoth ongoing piano collection The Road. With text excerpted from the Tolstoy novella Kreutzer Sonata it breathlessly dashes through the tale of a crime of passion, told from the bewildered eyes of the murderer, and strangely,
soliciting our compassion for him. Rzewski is especially skilled in how he balances voice and piano, and he should be, having written perhaps the single greatest piece in the medium to date, his setting of Oscar Wilde's De Profundis.
Two piano works without voice serve as interludes and bookend Jordanova's songs. Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang's Intimate Rejection revels in the opposites embodied in the title. The piece begins with a sudden muted attack on a melodic minor third (D-B), that becomes a simple, neutral rocking between the pitches. Around these isolated tones, filigree emerges and gradually creates its own internal harmony and counterpoint. The piece feels almost like a time-lapse of a plant growing. Midway through there are sudden attacks as in the opening, now in extremes of register, and once again, gentler material slowly asserts itself and grows ever more rich in detail and harmony. It seems that perhaps the icy, harsh "attack" sound and the far gentler and more lyric melodic tendrils that constitute the piece are embodiments of the title's two extremes.
Jordanova's New York Love Songs don't make any overt reference to the city, but as the composer says, "In my mind, New York is the city which combines different aspects of cultures, and is also a mélange of artistic
Two piano works without voice serve as interludes and bookend Jordanova's songs. Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang's Intimate Rejection revels in the opposites embodied in the title. The piece begins with a sudden muted attack on a melodic minor third (D-B), that becomes a simple, neutral rocking between the pitches. Around these isolated tones, filigree emerges and gradually creates its own internal harmony and counterpoint. The piece feels almost like a time-lapse of a plant growing. Midway through there are sudden attacks as in the opening, now in extremes of register, and once again, gentler material slowly asserts itself and grows ever more rich in detail and harmony. It seems that perhaps the icy, harsh "attack" sound and the far gentler and more lyric melodic tendrils that constitute the piece are embodiments of the title's two extremes.
Jordanova's New York Love Songs don't make any overt reference to the city, but as the composer says, "In my mind, New York is the city which combines different aspects of cultures, and is also a mélange of artistic
expressions and crossovers. It is also a city of romantic love, with the music of Gershwin, Broadway musicals, jazz of the 50's, lovers walking hand in hand in the Central Park and kissing on the subway. One of the first things I saw in NY was the sculpture that dominates a corner of 6th Avenue in Manhattan: Robert "Gerry" Indiana's 'LOVE.'" And each song not only celebrates a different type of love, it creates a specific soundworld in the process. "Prayer" sets a poem by the composer, which responds to the rapture of Bernini's Roman statue of the swooning Saint Theresa. In its simple piano accompaniment, its layers of vocal lines, its multiple languages, it creates a hush of unnerving, almost unbearable vulnerability, in tune with the statue's blend of explicit eroticism and mysticism. "Bite" is a set of instructions from the Kama Sutra that tread the thin distinction between pleasure and pain. The insistence of both the slightly laughing, teasing vocal part, and of the repeated notes and jingle-bells on the pianist, create a sound that reminds me of the atavistic songs of Harry Partch and Meredith Monk. "Chinese Laundry Across the Street" tells a little story of repeated encounters that the listener can assume are as innocent or wicked, as much reality or fantasy, as one wishes. The interplay of clearly motivic melody with spoken narration explores a range of vocal deliveries, and reminds us of Jordanova's roots in European expressionism (though the harmonica would not be a standard instrument in fin de siècle Vienna!). Finally, "Moon" sets Su Shi's 11th
century poem, in Chinese. The song was written as an addition to the original cycle, upon Chai's suggestion. It bespeaks a love that languishes, lingers, and hopefully survives separation. Its sound is Asian without referencing any obvious tropes, beyond elegantly shaped and refined modal lines in both voice and piano. Only near its end does a livelier, dancing spirit enter to suggest a happy ending to the longing.
Jordanova's Loveling is itself a kind of answer to Wang's subtle but real dichotomies. It feels like a resolution, an acceptance of tenderness, and of the pain it can bring as well. Here we have a meditation on yearning: a slowly cycling bass line, a chaconne equally at home in the Baroque or contemporary pop, over which ever-more rich variations cast their web. The result is a nocturne, and if Chopin comes to mind, why not? This is a Slav writing, after all. One characteristic of American music, a tradition Jordanova considers an adoptive one, is a willingness to go it alone, to make it up as one goes, and to invent whatever means necessary to execute a vision. All the music on this disc meets those criteria, and at the end, the listener feels that s/he has experienced an intense yet gentle, even seductive, encounter with a series of unique creative spirits.
Robert Carl is chair of composition at the Hartt School, University of Hartford. He is the author of Terry Riley's in C (Oxford University Press).
Jordanova's Loveling is itself a kind of answer to Wang's subtle but real dichotomies. It feels like a resolution, an acceptance of tenderness, and of the pain it can bring as well. Here we have a meditation on yearning: a slowly cycling bass line, a chaconne equally at home in the Baroque or contemporary pop, over which ever-more rich variations cast their web. The result is a nocturne, and if Chopin comes to mind, why not? This is a Slav writing, after all. One characteristic of American music, a tradition Jordanova considers an adoptive one, is a willingness to go it alone, to make it up as one goes, and to invent whatever means necessary to execute a vision. All the music on this disc meets those criteria, and at the end, the listener feels that s/he has experienced an intense yet gentle, even seductive, encounter with a series of unique creative spirits.
Robert Carl is chair of composition at the Hartt School, University of Hartford. He is the author of Terry Riley's in C (Oxford University Press).
Jenny Q Chai
"To me, music is life, love, and passion." --Jenny Q Chai
First prize winner of the Keys to the Future Contemporary Solo Piano Festival, and recipient of the DAAD Arts and Performance award in 2010, Jenny Q Chai is an active pianist specializing in contemporary music. Chai has premiered, most notably, Life Sketches by Nils Vigeland, Exercise in Deism by John Slover, Intimate Rejection by Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, and Blue Inscription by Scott Wollschleger. Chai has also premiered "Marriage (Mile 58) Section F" from The Road by Frederick Rzewski in Ghent, Belgium, where she was given the Logos Award for the best/revelation performance of 2008. Recently, Chai had the privilege of introducing the concept of prepared piano to a Chinese audience, with the world premiere of Mallet Dance by John Slover, in Shanghai Concert Hall.
Chai began playing the piano, under her mother's tutelage, at the age of 3. By age 6, she was selected out of thousands of applicants by the Shanghai Music Conservatory to be one of eleven piano students. At the tender age of 13, Chai began studies at the small, prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, accompanied by her father, sculptor Biao Chai to study under Beethoven specialist Seymour Lipkin.
"To me, music is life, love, and passion." --Jenny Q Chai
First prize winner of the Keys to the Future Contemporary Solo Piano Festival, and recipient of the DAAD Arts and Performance award in 2010, Jenny Q Chai is an active pianist specializing in contemporary music. Chai has premiered, most notably, Life Sketches by Nils Vigeland, Exercise in Deism by John Slover, Intimate Rejection by Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang, and Blue Inscription by Scott Wollschleger. Chai has also premiered "Marriage (Mile 58) Section F" from The Road by Frederick Rzewski in Ghent, Belgium, where she was given the Logos Award for the best/revelation performance of 2008. Recently, Chai had the privilege of introducing the concept of prepared piano to a Chinese audience, with the world premiere of Mallet Dance by John Slover, in Shanghai Concert Hall.
Chai began playing the piano, under her mother's tutelage, at the age of 3. By age 6, she was selected out of thousands of applicants by the Shanghai Music Conservatory to be one of eleven piano students. At the tender age of 13, Chai began studies at the small, prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, accompanied by her father, sculptor Biao Chai to study under Beethoven specialist Seymour Lipkin.
Four years later, Chai began to question whether music was the path for her. Two dark years followed, in which Chai avoided the piano. Then, by chance, the summer before her final year at Curtis, Chai heard a recording of Chopin playing in the background at a Shanghai tea house. "The tears gushed out of my eyes like an unexpected summer storm," says Chai. "That was the moment that I knew I wanted to be a pianist." Returning to Curtis, Chai "practiced like crazy," and graduated a more mature and vibrant artist.
Receiving a full scholarship, Chai decided to study for her Master's degree under the world renown pedagogue Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Yearning for something beyond the standard classical repertoire, Chai found a proficient mentor in Nils Vigeland, chair of composition at MSM, under whose support Chai's long-held affinity for contemporary music was able to bloom. For her doctorate studies (also at MSM), Chai made the bold decision to play only contemporary music, under the guidance of contemporary pianist Anthony de Mare. In fact, it was de Mare who premiered Victoria Jordanova's "Prayer," from New York Love Songs, later introducing the piece to Chai. It was a recording of "Prayer" performed by Chai that inspired Jordanova to invite her to collaborate on this album.
Receiving a full scholarship, Chai decided to study for her Master's degree under the world renown pedagogue Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Yearning for something beyond the standard classical repertoire, Chai found a proficient mentor in Nils Vigeland, chair of composition at MSM, under whose support Chai's long-held affinity for contemporary music was able to bloom. For her doctorate studies (also at MSM), Chai made the bold decision to play only contemporary music, under the guidance of contemporary pianist Anthony de Mare. In fact, it was de Mare who premiered Victoria Jordanova's "Prayer," from New York Love Songs, later introducing the piece to Chai. It was a recording of "Prayer" performed by Chai that inspired Jordanova to invite her to collaborate on this album.
Currently living in Germany, Chai works with the great contemporary pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and performs in Ensemble 20/21, directed by David Smeyers, and the group Musikfabrik. In what is already an illustrious career, Chai has been covered on major medium throughout the U.S., China, and Europe, including Time Out New York, Shanghai Culture, and Cologne Daily News, and her performances of contemporary music have been broadcasted throughout Italy, Germany, China, and the U.S. Chai will be featured with Ensemble 20/21 performing music by Hanns Eisler on a recording to be released later this year, on Deutschlandfunk.
For Chai, near-total immersion in the contemporary music world has only enhanced her appreciation for the classical repertoire. "I feel a sense of contentment programming creative concerts, mixing and matching old and new works, so as to highlight what is most special in each piece. After all, nothing comes from nothing, and new music is very much connected to that which came before."
Chai is the music director of emerging contemporary lecture-series Ear to Mind in New York City and the founder of FaceArt Music and Arts Center in Shanghai, China.
For Chai, near-total immersion in the contemporary music world has only enhanced her appreciation for the classical repertoire. "I feel a sense of contentment programming creative concerts, mixing and matching old and new works, so as to highlight what is most special in each piece. After all, nothing comes from nothing, and new music is very much connected to that which came before."
Chai is the music director of emerging contemporary lecture-series Ear to Mind in New York City and the founder of FaceArt Music and Arts Center in Shanghai, China.
About the Composers
John Cage
The legendary American composer, pianist, philosopher, poet and mycologist was the pioneer of chance music, non-standard use of musical instruments, and electronic music. Though he remains a controversial figure, he is generally regarded as one of the most important composers of his era.
Throughout the sixties, Cage began to focus his attention on the technologies of recording and amplification. For one of his better known pieces, Cartridge Music (1960), he amplified small household objects at a live performance. At the same time, Cage began to focus on writing and published his first book, Silence (1961). This marked a shift in his attention toward literature. In the seventies, with inspirations like Thoreau and Joyce, Cage began to take literary texts and transform them into music. Roratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake (1979), was an outline for transforming any work of literature into a work of music. The piece was based on James Joyce's novel, Finnegans Wake, which was one of Cage's favorite books, and one from which he derived texts for several more of his works.
John Cage
The legendary American composer, pianist, philosopher, poet and mycologist was the pioneer of chance music, non-standard use of musical instruments, and electronic music. Though he remains a controversial figure, he is generally regarded as one of the most important composers of his era.
Throughout the sixties, Cage began to focus his attention on the technologies of recording and amplification. For one of his better known pieces, Cartridge Music (1960), he amplified small household objects at a live performance. At the same time, Cage began to focus on writing and published his first book, Silence (1961). This marked a shift in his attention toward literature. In the seventies, with inspirations like Thoreau and Joyce, Cage began to take literary texts and transform them into music. Roratorio, an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake (1979), was an outline for transforming any work of literature into a work of music. The piece was based on James Joyce's novel, Finnegans Wake, which was one of Cage's favorite books, and one from which he derived texts for several more of his works.
Cage received an award from the National Academy of Arts and Letters for having extended the boundaries of music through his work with percussion orchestra and his invention of the prepared piano. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978, to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1988 and was the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University for the 1988-89 academic year.
Charles Ives
Composer, pianist and organist, is widely regarded as the foremost American composer of international significance. Ives combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music. He was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century. In 1906, Ives composed what some have argued was the first radical musical work of the twentieth century, Central Park in the Dark, the piece which evokes an evening comparing sounds from nearby nightclubs in Manhattan with the orchestral strings depicting in sound the mysterious dark and misty qualities of the Central Park woods.
Although today Ives is famous for his orchestral music, string quartets, and other works of chamber music, during his life he worked and made a fortune in the life insurance business. He composed music and worked as an organist in his spare time. In 1922, Ives self-published his 114 Songs, the collection which shows the breadth of his work as a composer. In 1947 his obscurity was lifted when his Symphony No. 3 won Ives the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Composer, pianist and organist, is widely regarded as the foremost American composer of international significance. Ives combined the American popular and church-music traditions of his youth with European art music. He was among the first composers to engage in a systematic program of experimental music, with musical techniques including polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones, foreshadowing many musical innovations of the 20th century. In 1906, Ives composed what some have argued was the first radical musical work of the twentieth century, Central Park in the Dark, the piece which evokes an evening comparing sounds from nearby nightclubs in Manhattan with the orchestral strings depicting in sound the mysterious dark and misty qualities of the Central Park woods.
Although today Ives is famous for his orchestral music, string quartets, and other works of chamber music, during his life he worked and made a fortune in the life insurance business. He composed music and worked as an organist in his spare time. In 1922, Ives self-published his 114 Songs, the collection which shows the breadth of his work as a composer. In 1947 his obscurity was lifted when his Symphony No. 3 won Ives the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Ives was also a great supporter of twentieth century music and works that were written by other composers. He was known as an accomplished pianist who could improvise in a variety of styles, including those then quite new.
Victoria Jordanova
Composer, harpist and pianist. "She has a tightly controlled focus to her work, a singularity of vision" (NewMusicBox Magazine, 2005). Wishing to establish her own "sonic world" in 1993 Jordanova began to explore and use electronics as an intrinsic part of her composition process and in 2003 founded ArpaViva label.
CRI's recording of her Requiem For Bosnia for a broken piano, harp and child's voice released in the eXchange series in 1994 was named one of the top ten classical recordings of the year by Tim Page in New York Newsday. In 1997 her Dance to Sleep album was published on CRI's Emergency Music series featuring her new works for traditional harp with different electronic modules applied to each piece. Jordanova's 2004 Outer Circles is a "sound sculpture" for sampled vocal acoustic and environmental sounds published by Innova Recordings. In 2003 Jordanova received the San Francisco Arts Commission grant for multidisciplinary work Panopticon. Jordanova's music for chamber ensembles has been performed by the California EAR Unit, Zeitgeist, Bang on a Can All Stars, CurvdAir, Creative Voices. Her music was included in The Composer-Performer 40 Years of Discovery, Composer's Recordings Inc. 40th Anniversary Anthology of American Music in 1994.
Composer, harpist and pianist. "She has a tightly controlled focus to her work, a singularity of vision" (NewMusicBox Magazine, 2005). Wishing to establish her own "sonic world" in 1993 Jordanova began to explore and use electronics as an intrinsic part of her composition process and in 2003 founded ArpaViva label.
CRI's recording of her Requiem For Bosnia for a broken piano, harp and child's voice released in the eXchange series in 1994 was named one of the top ten classical recordings of the year by Tim Page in New York Newsday. In 1997 her Dance to Sleep album was published on CRI's Emergency Music series featuring her new works for traditional harp with different electronic modules applied to each piece. Jordanova's 2004 Outer Circles is a "sound sculpture" for sampled vocal acoustic and environmental sounds published by Innova Recordings. In 2003 Jordanova received the San Francisco Arts Commission grant for multidisciplinary work Panopticon. Jordanova's music for chamber ensembles has been performed by the California EAR Unit, Zeitgeist, Bang on a Can All Stars, CurvdAir, Creative Voices. Her music was included in The Composer-Performer 40 Years of Discovery, Composer's Recordings Inc. 40th Anniversary Anthology of American Music in 1994.
Frederic Rzewski
Composer, pianist and conductor is one of the towering figures of American avantgarde music. In Rome in the mid-sixties, together with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, he formed the MEV (Musica Elettronica Viva) group, known for its pioneering work in live electronics and improvisation. Bringing together both classical and jazz avant-gardists (like Steve Lacy and Anthony Braxton), MEV developed an esthetic of music as a spontaneous collective process.
Many of Rzewski's works are inspired by socio-historical themes and show a deep political conscience. During the seventies he experimented with forms in which style and language are treated as structural elements; the best-known work of this period is The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, a 50-minute set of piano variations. A number of pieces for larger ensembles written between 1979 and 1981 show a return to experimental and graphic notation, while much of the work of the eighties explores new ways of using twelve-tone technique. A freer, more spontaneous approach to writing can be found in more recent work. His largest-scale work to date is The Triumph of Death (1987-8), a two-hour oratorio based on texts adapted from Peter Weiss' 1965 play Die Ermittlung (The Investigation). Highly influential both as composer and
Composer, pianist and conductor is one of the towering figures of American avantgarde music. In Rome in the mid-sixties, together with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum, he formed the MEV (Musica Elettronica Viva) group, known for its pioneering work in live electronics and improvisation. Bringing together both classical and jazz avant-gardists (like Steve Lacy and Anthony Braxton), MEV developed an esthetic of music as a spontaneous collective process.
Many of Rzewski's works are inspired by socio-historical themes and show a deep political conscience. During the seventies he experimented with forms in which style and language are treated as structural elements; the best-known work of this period is The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, a 50-minute set of piano variations. A number of pieces for larger ensembles written between 1979 and 1981 show a return to experimental and graphic notation, while much of the work of the eighties explores new ways of using twelve-tone technique. A freer, more spontaneous approach to writing can be found in more recent work. His largest-scale work to date is The Triumph of Death (1987-8), a two-hour oratorio based on texts adapted from Peter Weiss' 1965 play Die Ermittlung (The Investigation). Highly influential both as composer and
pianist, with his virtuoso De Profundis (1992) and The Road (1996-2006) Rzewski brings into the piano repertoire works that are a summation of all possible piano techniques including those which entrust the pianist with whistling, humming, talking, and percussion. The Road a monumental ca.8 hour long work for solo piano divided into eight Parts and 64 "Miles", was premiered at the Trinity School of Music 2006 Rzewski Festival in London.
In 2002, Rzewski performed his own works for piano on a seven-disc collection, Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works, 1975-1999, released by Nonesuch. Since 1983, he has been Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liege, Belgium and lectures in schools and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 2007 Rzewski published his NONSEQUITURS: Writings and Lectures on Improvisation, Composition, and Interpretation 1965–1994 (Edition Musiktexte, Köln 2007)
In 2002, Rzewski performed his own works for piano on a seven-disc collection, Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works, 1975-1999, released by Nonesuch. Since 1983, he has been Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liege, Belgium and lectures in schools and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 2007 Rzewski published his NONSEQUITURS: Writings and Lectures on Improvisation, Composition, and Interpretation 1965–1994 (Edition Musiktexte, Köln 2007)
Ashley Fu-Tsun Wang
Composer, grew up in Taiwan. She began her musical training on piano and violin at the age of four, and started composing at the age of twelve. Her music has been performed throughout the US, Europe, and Asia by various ensembles and performers such as the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, pianists Eric Huebner, Vicky Chow, Jenny Q Chai, conductors David Gilbert, Brad Lubman and Paul Chiang, at venues including Atlantic Center for the Arts, MASS MoCA, Roulette, The Stone, The Gershwin Hotel, Logos Foundation (Belgium), Herz Jesu-Kirche (Germany), Kitara Hall (Japan), Forum Music Hall (Taiwan), and the Bach Hall (Taiwan).
Wang's compositions have been reviewed by Allan Kozinn in the New York Times; broadcasted on Taukay Edizioni Musicali (Italy); recognized by the American Composers Forum, ASCAP Foundation, Award of Literature and Art Competition, Margaret Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition, and National Association of Composers; and have been performed at June in Buffalo, Pacific Music Festival, Festival of Women Composers, Tutti New Music Festival, Bang on a Can Music Festival, Society of Composers National Conference, among others. She also has worked with noted composers such as David Felder, Steven
Composer, grew up in Taiwan. She began her musical training on piano and violin at the age of four, and started composing at the age of twelve. Her music has been performed throughout the US, Europe, and Asia by various ensembles and performers such as the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet, pianists Eric Huebner, Vicky Chow, Jenny Q Chai, conductors David Gilbert, Brad Lubman and Paul Chiang, at venues including Atlantic Center for the Arts, MASS MoCA, Roulette, The Stone, The Gershwin Hotel, Logos Foundation (Belgium), Herz Jesu-Kirche (Germany), Kitara Hall (Japan), Forum Music Hall (Taiwan), and the Bach Hall (Taiwan).
Wang's compositions have been reviewed by Allan Kozinn in the New York Times; broadcasted on Taukay Edizioni Musicali (Italy); recognized by the American Composers Forum, ASCAP Foundation, Award of Literature and Art Competition, Margaret Blackburn Biennial Composition Competition, and National Association of Composers; and have been performed at June in Buffalo, Pacific Music Festival, Festival of Women Composers, Tutti New Music Festival, Bang on a Can Music Festival, Society of Composers National Conference, among others. She also has worked with noted composers such as David Felder, Steven
Stucky, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, Fabien Lévy, Michael Hersch, Nils Vigeland, Richard Danielpour, Gordon Shih-Wen Chin, and Wan-Chen Huang. Wang is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and SooChow University.
Song Lyrics
John Cage The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1949)
Lyrics: adaption of excerpt from Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Night by silent sailing night. . .
Isobel. . .
wildwood's eyes and primarose hair,
quietly,
all the woods so wild, in mauves of
moss and daphnedews,
how all so still she lay, neath of the
whitethorn, child of tree,
like some losthappy leaf,
like blowing flower stilled,
as fain would she anon,
for soon again 'twil be,
win me, woo me, wed me,
ah weary me!
deeply,
now evencalm lay sleeping; night
John Cage The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs (1949)
Lyrics: adaption of excerpt from Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Night by silent sailing night. . .
Isobel. . .
wildwood's eyes and primarose hair,
quietly,
all the woods so wild, in mauves of
moss and daphnedews,
how all so still she lay, neath of the
whitethorn, child of tree,
like some losthappy leaf,
like blowing flower stilled,
as fain would she anon,
for soon again 'twil be,
win me, woo me, wed me,
ah weary me!
deeply,
now evencalm lay sleeping; night
Isobel
Sister Isobel
Saintette Isobel
Madame Isa
Veuve La Belle
Sister Isobel
Saintette Isobel
Madame Isa
Veuve La Belle
Charles Ives Serenity (1942)
Lyrics: excerpt from The Brewing of Soma by J.G. Whittier
O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
Lyrics: excerpt from The Brewing of Soma by J.G. Whittier
O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
Frederic Rzewski "Marriage (Mile 58) Section F" from The Road (1996)
Lyrics: excerpt from the novella Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
The first thing I did was to take off my shoes.
In my socks I went to the wall, where I kept my guns and my knives.
I took down a knife that had never been used before and was very sharp.
The sheath fell down behind the sofa, and I thought I'd better find it afterwards.
I went to the door and opened it.
I remember the look of terror on their faces.
I remembered it was what I wanted:
I was happy.
If all she had done was to look terrified, maybe I wouldn't have done it.
But she looked irritated.
He smiled, and started to say: "Of, we were just playing a little music together..."
I ran towards her, hiding my knife. He grabbed my arm and said: "Think what you are doing!"
I went for him but he was under the piano and out of the room.
I started to run after him, but then I thought: "I'll look foolish in my socks!
Lyrics: excerpt from the novella Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
The first thing I did was to take off my shoes.
In my socks I went to the wall, where I kept my guns and my knives.
I took down a knife that had never been used before and was very sharp.
The sheath fell down behind the sofa, and I thought I'd better find it afterwards.
I went to the door and opened it.
I remember the look of terror on their faces.
I remembered it was what I wanted:
I was happy.
If all she had done was to look terrified, maybe I wouldn't have done it.
But she looked irritated.
He smiled, and started to say: "Of, we were just playing a little music together..."
I ran towards her, hiding my knife. He grabbed my arm and said: "Think what you are doing!"
I went for him but he was under the piano and out of the room.
I started to run after him, but then I thought: "I'll look foolish in my socks!
I want to look - terrifying."
If she'd kept still, I might not have done it. But she grabbed my hand, and started to yell:
"Think what you're doing! What's wrong with you?
There is nothing, nothing..."
I remembered everything afterwards, and I've never stopped remembering.
I did not know what I was going to do, but I knew what I was doing.
And I might have not done it; but I had to answer her question.
For a long time afterwards I thought about that moment before I did it.
It came and went like a lightning flash, when I knew that I was killing a woman, my wife.
For a moment I stood there, waiting to see what would happen.
I went to my room and thought about nothing. There was a noise. It's the police!
Or maybe it's her and nothing had happened. More knocking. Yes, it has happened. And now, me! But I knew I wasn't going to kill myself. My wife's sister was crying as usual: "What have you done? She's dying! Go in and see her!"
Go in and see her? When a husband has murdered his wife? Wait!
I'll look foolish without my shoes. Let me put on some slippers!
If she'd kept still, I might not have done it. But she grabbed my hand, and started to yell:
"Think what you're doing! What's wrong with you?
There is nothing, nothing..."
I remembered everything afterwards, and I've never stopped remembering.
I did not know what I was going to do, but I knew what I was doing.
And I might have not done it; but I had to answer her question.
For a long time afterwards I thought about that moment before I did it.
It came and went like a lightning flash, when I knew that I was killing a woman, my wife.
For a moment I stood there, waiting to see what would happen.
I went to my room and thought about nothing. There was a noise. It's the police!
Or maybe it's her and nothing had happened. More knocking. Yes, it has happened. And now, me! But I knew I wasn't going to kill myself. My wife's sister was crying as usual: "What have you done? She's dying! Go in and see her!"
Go in and see her? When a husband has murdered his wife? Wait!
I'll look foolish without my shoes. Let me put on some slippers!
Selections from New York Love Songs (1997-2010):
Victoria Jordanova "Prayer" (1997)
Lyrics: Victoria Jordanova, inspired by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini's marble sculpture, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
She, kneeling a prayer between his thighs.
Lips whisper miracles of a sleep walker.
Feverish.
She, stops to drink from his gaze.
Blue!
He, little explosions in the head.
Eyes fixed on the ceiling.
And there are comets, black holes and the stars.
Pretty.
His body is the universe trembling.
And, then the Milky Way as a grace very bitter, baptized her
Has she adored young body of Jesus.
Victoria Jordanova "Prayer" (1997)
Lyrics: Victoria Jordanova, inspired by Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini's marble sculpture, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
She, kneeling a prayer between his thighs.
Lips whisper miracles of a sleep walker.
Feverish.
She, stops to drink from his gaze.
Blue!
He, little explosions in the head.
Eyes fixed on the ceiling.
And there are comets, black holes and the stars.
Pretty.
His body is the universe trembling.
And, then the Milky Way as a grace very bitter, baptized her
Has she adored young body of Jesus.
Victoria Jordanova "Bite" (1998)
Lyrics: excerpt from Kama Sutra
The hidden bite, the swollen bite, the coral and the jewel,
the line of jewels, the line of points, the broken cloud.
These are the ornaments worn by the woman who is beloved.
These are peculiar to lovers of intense passion.
When a man bites a woman, she bends her head down in return and kisses his lower lip.
And then being intoxicated with love shuts her eyes and bites him in various places.
The swollen bite on lower lip, the line of jewels at his throat.
These are peculiar to lovers of intense passion.
Their teeth should be bright, unbroken and with the sharp ends.
Thus their love for each other will not be lessened in one hundred years.
Lyrics: excerpt from Kama Sutra
The hidden bite, the swollen bite, the coral and the jewel,
the line of jewels, the line of points, the broken cloud.
These are the ornaments worn by the woman who is beloved.
These are peculiar to lovers of intense passion.
When a man bites a woman, she bends her head down in return and kisses his lower lip.
And then being intoxicated with love shuts her eyes and bites him in various places.
The swollen bite on lower lip, the line of jewels at his throat.
These are peculiar to lovers of intense passion.
Their teeth should be bright, unbroken and with the sharp ends.
Thus their love for each other will not be lessened in one hundred years.
Victoria Jordanova "Chinese Laundry Across the Street" (1998)
Lyrics: Victoria Jordanova
Master of calligraphy, he folded and folded and she watched.
Master of calligraphy folding her camisole.
Thumbs brushing over the silk crests of her nipples.
She shivered.
Master of calligraphy, he folded and folded and she watched.
Week after week she descended with him to their muted stillness.
He folded and folded and she watched.
He knew she had no lover. Her garments were plain.
Suddenly she bought the brassiere hemmed with a thin black lace
and the glistening silk stockings.
She had a fragile body of a dancer
and he liked trading magic with her.
He folded and folded and she watched.
She forgot to breathe every time she saw him.
His fingers ironed out the edges of her slip. The edges which met between her inner thighs.
Small throbbing flames came back.
Lyrics: Victoria Jordanova
Master of calligraphy, he folded and folded and she watched.
Master of calligraphy folding her camisole.
Thumbs brushing over the silk crests of her nipples.
She shivered.
Master of calligraphy, he folded and folded and she watched.
Week after week she descended with him to their muted stillness.
He folded and folded and she watched.
He knew she had no lover. Her garments were plain.
Suddenly she bought the brassiere hemmed with a thin black lace
and the glistening silk stockings.
She had a fragile body of a dancer
and he liked trading magic with her.
He folded and folded and she watched.
She forgot to breathe every time she saw him.
His fingers ironed out the edges of her slip. The edges which met between her inner thighs.
Small throbbing flames came back.
Master of calligraphy, he folded and folded and she watched.
When he pressed the latch of her bra in the hollow of her breasts
her mouth dried up.
He remembered the bird he saved as a boy and let go in the Spring.
When he pressed the latch of her bra in the hollow of her breasts
her mouth dried up.
He remembered the bird he saved as a boy and let go in the Spring.
Victoria Jordanova "Moon" (2010)
Original title: "Shui Diao Ge Tou," by Su Shi, 11c Song dynasty poet
Lyrics translated from Chinese by Jenny Q Chai
ming/ yue\ ji\/ shi/ you\/
When will the moon be clear and bright?
ba\/ jiu\/ wen\ ching- tian-
With a cup of wine in my hand, I ask the blue sky.
bu\ zhi- tian- shang\ gong- chue-
I don't know in the heavens,
jin- xi- shi\ heh/ nian/
what season it would be on this night?
wo\/ yu\ cheng\ feng- gui- chu\
I'd like to ride the wind to fly home.
Original title: "Shui Diao Ge Tou," by Su Shi, 11c Song dynasty poet
Lyrics translated from Chinese by Jenny Q Chai
ming/ yue\ ji\/ shi/ you\/
When will the moon be clear and bright?
ba\/ jiu\/ wen\ ching- tian-
With a cup of wine in my hand, I ask the blue sky.
bu\ zhi- tian- shang\ gong- chue-
I don't know in the heavens,
jin- xi- shi\ heh/ nian/
what season it would be on this night?
wo\/ yu\ cheng\ feng- gui- chu\
I'd like to ride the wind to fly home.
yo\ kong\/ qiong/ long/ yu\ yu\/
Yet I fear the crystal and jade mansions,
gao- chu\ bu/ sheng\ han/
too high and cold for me.
qi/ wu\/ nong\ qing- ying\/
Dancing with my moon-lit shadow,
he/ si\ zai\ ren/ jian-
[this] does not seem like the human world.
zhuan\/ zhu- geh/
[The moon] rounds the red mansion,
di- yi\/ hu\
stoops to silk-pad doors
zhao\ wu/ mian/
shines upon the sleepless,
Yet I fear the crystal and jade mansions,
gao- chu\ bu/ sheng\ han/
too high and cold for me.
qi/ wu\/ nong\ qing- ying\/
Dancing with my moon-lit shadow,
he/ si\ zai\ ren/ jian-
[this] does not seem like the human world.
zhuan\/ zhu- geh/
[The moon] rounds the red mansion,
di- yi\/ hu\
stoops to silk-pad doors
zhao\ wu/ mian/
shines upon the sleepless,
bu\ ying- you\/ hen\
bearing no grudge.
he/ shi\ chang/ xiang\ bie/ shi/ yuan/
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?
ren/ you\/ bei- huan- li/ heh/
People may have sorrow or joy, together or apart,
yue\ yo\/ ying- qing/ yuan/ chue-
the moon may be dim or bright, wax or wan.
ci\/ shi/ gu\/ nan/ chuan/
This has been going on since the beginning of time.
dan\ yuan\ ren/ chang/ jiu\/
May we all be blessed with longevity.
chian- li\/ gong\ chan/ juan-
Though far apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.
bearing no grudge.
he/ shi\ chang/ xiang\ bie/ shi/ yuan/
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?
ren/ you\/ bei- huan- li/ heh/
People may have sorrow or joy, together or apart,
yue\ yo\/ ying- qing/ yuan/ chue-
the moon may be dim or bright, wax or wan.
ci\/ shi/ gu\/ nan/ chuan/
This has been going on since the beginning of time.
dan\ yuan\ ren/ chang/ jiu\/
May we all be blessed with longevity.
chian- li\/ gong\ chan/ juan-
Though far apart, we are still able to share the beauty of the moon together.
NEW YORK LOVE SONGS
Jenny Q Chai – pianist, vocalist
ArpaViva CD 003, 2010
Produced by Victoria Jordanova
Executive producer: Relja Penezic
Digital sampling, editing and mixing by Victoria Jordanova
Intimate Rejection digital sampling by B. Destremps at Curtis Institute of Music
Mastered by Adrian Carr at ACMASTERING, Montreal, QC
Art Design by Relja Penezic
© ArpaViva Foundation Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Jenny Q Chai – pianist, vocalist
ArpaViva CD 003, 2010
Produced by Victoria Jordanova
Executive producer: Relja Penezic
Digital sampling, editing and mixing by Victoria Jordanova
Intimate Rejection digital sampling by B. Destremps at Curtis Institute of Music
Mastered by Adrian Carr at ACMASTERING, Montreal, QC
Art Design by Relja Penezic
© ArpaViva Foundation Inc., Los Angeles, CA