Ryan talks about his new piano concerto, the featured work in Metropolis Ensemble’s upcoming concert Loop.
Program notes for the LOOP concert on April 10, 2008, featuring the works of Ryan Francis, Maurice Ravel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Erik Satie (arranged by David Bruce). Texts for songs 1-4 from Sappho – A translation by Mary Barnard (Univ. of California Press, 1958) Copyright © 1958 by the Regenta of University of California, Copyright renewed by Mary Barnard. Used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc. as agent for Chester Music Ltd. Texts for song 5 from The Love Songs of Sappho. Essay copyright © 1998 by Paul Roche. Introduction copyright © 1998 by Page duBois. Published 2001 by special arrangement with Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, USA. Used by arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc. as agent for Chester Music Ltd.
1. Tell Everyone
Now, today, I shall sing beautifully for my friends’ pleasure
2. Without Warning
As a whirlwind, swoops an oak Love shakes my heart
3. It’s No Use
Mother dear, I can’t finish my weaving You may blame Aphrodite soft as she is she has almost killed with love for that boy
4. The Evening Star
Is the most beautiful of all stars
5. Wedding
Raise up the rafters high, Hurrah for the wedding! Carpenters: higher and higher, Hurrah for the wedding! The bridegroom is equal to Ares, Hurrah for the wedding! Much taller than any tall man is, Hurrah for the wedding! As tall as the singer of Lesbos, Hurrah for the wedding! Towers over all singers of elsewhere, Hurrah for the wedding! I think I shall be a maiden forever Listen my dear, By the Goddess herself I swear That I (like you) Had only one Virginity to spare Yet did not fear To go over the bridal line When Hera bade me And cast it from me; So I cheer you on and loudly declare: “My own night was none Too bad And you my girl Have nothing to fear Nothing at all.” Raise up the rafters high, Hurrah for the wedding! Carpenters: higher and higher, Hurrah for the wedding! The bridegroom is equal to Ares, Hurrah for the wedding! Much taller than any tall man is, Hurrah for the wedding! As tall as the singer of Lesbos, Hurrah for the wedding! Towers over all singers of elsewhere, Hurrah for the wedding! [Bridesmaid’s carol I] Come, bride Brimming with roses Of love, bride, Gem of the lovely Goddess of Paphos: Go, bride, Go to the bed where sweetly and gently You’ll play with your bridegroom: So, bride, Hesperus lead you Star of the evening Happily onwards Where you shall wonder Where Hera on silver Sits Lady of Marriage. Raise up the rafters high, Hurrah for the wedding! Carpenters: higher and higher, Hurrah for the wedding! The bridegroom is equal to Ares, Hurrah for the wedding! Much taller than any tall man is, Hurrah for the wedding! As tall as the singer of Lesbos, Hurrah for the wedding! Towers over all singers of elsewhere, Hurrah for the wedding! They were exhausted and The black trance of night flooded into their eyes.
Program notes for the LOOP concert on April 10, 2008, featuring the works of Ryan Francis, Maurice Ravel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Erik Satie (arranged by David Bruce). If we imagine the history of art as some kind of Darwinian survival game, Sappho stands out as a genetic miracle. No (almost no) whole organism (poem) has survived; instead we have a couple of dozen pages’ worth of fragments. Some of them are almost complete little poems; most of them are isolated groups of words or single words far apart. Almost every generation of poets has tried to translate these scattered messages from a woman of whom we know very little. As always, interpretation tells more about the interpreter, and his time and culture, than the work itself. Our modern view of Sappho is similar to that of other art forms, more scholarly than romantic. It is important to remember that the best Sappho translation today (or the best Beethoven interpretation) will be seen as interesting, but slightly ridiculous, by future generations. We are prisoners of our own time and generation. It is the fragmentary nature of the material, and therefore an almost open form, that makes Sappho so fascinating to set to music. (After having typed this sentence I realized that I am still trying to give an intellectual, formal explanation wildly off the mark in the good old serialist tradition. That is exactly what I mean by being a prisoner of one’s own generation.) It is the tremendous energy of suffocated sexuality and the vibrant eroticism in Sappho that got my imagination going. Sappho reveals to us secrets of the female soul like nobody else. There is no subject more interesting. Between these small islands of words one can hear music. I set out to compose a cycle in which I would describe a woman’s life from childhood to old age and death. Timing was not right: my son Oliver was born in the middle of the composition period, and it became totally impossible for me to imagine death and loneliness. I decided to concentrate on the first part of life instead. A short description of the structure of Five Images from Sappho:
Tell everyone. The singer explains that she is going to tell a story. Music is fanfare-like, except for the word ‘beautifully’.
Without Warning. The first awakening of love. Descending figures in the beginning are metaphors of a gentle whirlwind.
It’s no use. A young girl is unable to concentrate on household chores. She is trying to explain to her mother why, but gets so excited that she can only stutter. Finally, she manages to get the words 'that boy’.
The evening star. I imagine: a girl is lying in the grass in the evening, gazing at the stars. For the first time she understands that even she will be old one day. The strings and the celesta describe the flicker of the stars.
Wedding. I combined several poems here to create a larger form. The singer has different roles in this song. In the refrain the crowd greets the bridegroom. It returns twice in different guises. After the interlude the bride has a brief moment of despair, but is comforted by an older woman ('listen, my dear’), who has a very balanced point of view, in my opinion.
After the second refrain girls gather outside the nuptial chamber and sing teasingly a song ('Come bride’). After the third refrain and an orchestral culmination, a voice describes the couple sleeping peacefully in each other’s arms.
Program notes for the LOOP concert on April 10, 2008, featuring the works of Ryan Francis, Maurice Ravel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Erik Satie (arranged by David Bruce). This concerto feels like an arrival point for me artistically that has been in the works for the past four years. I’ve been exploring a lot of seemingly (to me, at least) disparate musical concepts, but this concerto is the crucible in which I’m forging them all together. On the one hand, I’ve written a good deal of music that deals more with textural as opposed to ‘metric’ rhythms, and I also have a parallel string of pieces that are concerned with electronic influence on acoustic music, which are much more metrically complex, while retaining more harmonic clarity. My interest in electronics has influence the concerto on both an aural level and a process level. While the concerto’s orchestration is often designed to create 'electronic’ timbres, I also decided to forego my traditional paper-and-pencil-exclusively method of composing, in favor of working with MIDI maps. This new method of working allowed me to explore and develop textures that I probably would have never discovered were I simply working with my hands on a keyboard, and this influenced the soloist’s part in particular. I would write with grids, unconcerned with playability, and would then transcribe them into mensural notation and revise and revise until they were completely idiomatic. The result has been that the piano writing is often utterly different than my previous work, which was my goal. Each of the movements were developed out of piano etudes that I have been writing for the past year, and the form of each movement reflects the same sort of obsessive quality of an etude, although I allowed myself to be a little more expansive as well; this is a concerto, after all!
The first movement could almost be a chorale, were it not for the sharp syncopated disjunctive melodic contours that cut through the texture.
The second movement is a sort of musical Jacob’s Ladder, constantly rising musical gestures that are also continuously falling.
The third movement is more about color than the others, and less rhythmically driving as well, although there is a gentle repeated note pulse that runs through much of the movement.
The final movement is comprised of two basic layers: a light, distant textural one, and a foreground built on constantly evolving loops of material.
Program notes for the LOOP concert on April 10, 2008, featuring the works of Ryan Francis, Maurice Ravel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Erik Satie (arranged by David Bruce). Translation by Ned Rorem.
I. Sigh / Soupir
My soul rises toward your brow where, O peaceful sister, Mon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme sœur, a dappled autumn dreams, un automne jonché de taches de rousseur, and toward the roving sky of your angelic eye, et vers le ciel errant de ton œil angélique as in a melancholy garden, faithful, monte, comme dans un jardin mélancolique, a white plume of water sights toward heaven’s blue! fidèle, un blanc jet d’eau soupire vers l’azur! Toward the compassionate blue of pale and pure October Vers l’azur attendri d’octobre pâle et pur that onto vast pools mirrors infinite indolence qui mire aux grands bassins sa langueur infinie and, over a swampwhere the dark death of leaves et laisse, sur l’eau morte où la fauve agonie floats in the wind and digs a cold furrow des feuilles erre au vent et creuse un froid sillon, letting the yellow sun draw out a long ray. se traîner le soleil jaune d’un long rayon.
II. Futile petition / Placet futile
Princess! envious of the youthful Hebe Princesse! à jalouser le destin d’une Hébé rising up on this cup at the touch of your lips, qui poind sur cette tasse au baiser de vos lèvres, I spend my ardor, but have only the low rank of abbot j’use mes feux mais n’ai rang discret que d’abbé and shall never appear even naked on the Sèvres. et ne figurerai même nu sur le Sèvres. Since I’m not your whiskered lap-dog, Comme je ne suis pas ton bichon embarbé, nor candy, nor rouge, nor sentimental pose, ni la pastille, ni du rouge, ni jeux mièvres and since I know your glance on me is blind, et que sur moi je sais ton regard clos tombé, O blonde, whose divine hairdessers are goldsmiths! blonde dont les coiffeurs divins sont des orfèvres! Appoint us – you in whose laughter so many berries Nommez-nous… toi de qui tant de ris framboisés join a flock of tame lambs se joignent en troupeaux d’agneaux apprivoisés nibbling every vow and bleating with joy, chez tous broutant les vœux et bêlant aux délires, appoint us – so that Eros winged with a fan will paint me upon it, nommez-nous… pour qu’Amour ailé d’un éventail a flute in my fingers to lull those sheep, m’y peigne flûte aux doigts endormant ce bercail, Princess, appoint us shepherd of your smiles. Princesse, nommez-nous berger de vos sourires.
III. Rise from Haunch and Spurt / Surgi de la croupe et du bond
Risen from haunch and spurt Surgi de la croupe et du bond of ephemeral glassware d'une verrerie éphémère without causing the bitter eve to bloom, sans fleurir la veillée amère the ignored neck is stopped. le col ignoré s’interrompt. I, sylph of this cold ceiling, Je crois bien que deux bouches n’ont do not believe that two mouths – bu, ni son amant ni ma mère, neither my mother’s nor her lover’s – jamais à la même chimère ever drank from the same mad fancy. moi, sylphe de ce froid plafond! The pure vase empty of fluid Le pur vase d’aucun breuvage which tireless widowhood que l’inexhaustible veuvage slowly kills but does not consent to, agonise mais ne consent, innocent but funereal kiss! naïf baiser des plus funèbres! To expire to nought announcing A rien expirer annonçant a rose in the darkness. une rose dans les ténèbres.
Program notes for the LOOP concert on April 10, 2008, featuring the works of Ryan Francis, Maurice Ravel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Erik Satie (arranged by David Bruce).
The allure of Mallarmé’s cryptic inscrutable symbolist verses inspired many composers to use them as texts – or pretexts – for composition. Nevertheless, when Mallarmé was informed by Debussy that he intended to musicalize his famous poem, L’apres-midi d’un faune, the poet replied, “I thought I had already done that.”
Debussy and Ravel had each, unbeknownst to one another, seized upon two of the three poems that comprise Ravel’s cycle for as texts for songs, a coincidence that Debussy found “a phenomenon of autosuggestion worthy of communication to the Academy of Medicine.” Ravel found his specific inspiration when Igor Stravinsky showed him the score for his Poèmes de la lyrique japonaise which employed an unusual chamber ensemble derived from one that Schoenberg used for Pierrot Lunaire. Impressed by the coloristic possibilities of such an ensemble, Ravel decided to devise his Mallarmé settings for the same combination of instruments and soprano for a prospective performance of all three works that never took place.
What Ravel achieved in these songs is less an interpretation of the texts – for, indeed, how could one interpret poems of such scrupulous, suave ambiguity? – than a supreme act of poetic transposition into music. The first song, Soupir, for example, both naively and sophisticatedly true to its title, has the arched structure of a sigh: the voice rising exquisitely to a subtle climax; and then the long sad languor of release. The string glissandi that thrum, fountain-like, behind the entire first half of the song find their etiolated echo at the end, bracketing, as if in a sad mirror, the very impossibility of the “azure.”
In Placet Futile, the vain supplication is offered to a Watteau-painted princess, as remote as a figure enameled on a china plate. But whoever this princess might be, the proud deportment of the petitioner shines clearly through angular melodic lines and intricate chromatic harmonies, maintaining inflections perfectly natural to speech. The mood is undeniably restrained, a quiet pain tightening the throat. But listen to the magical entreaty at “nommez-nous…” where the flute unfurls like a silver tongue and slowly settles to the ground like a ribbon of silver, not to seduce, for seduction requires an agency wholly absent from Mallarmé’s delicate sonnet, but to present the singer’s eternal submission on a platter of china for the perfect princess’s cool contemplation.
With Surgi de la croupe et du bond, Mallarmé pushes his text even further into the realm of music. The poem exhales a studied elusiveness that cancels form, eloquence, rhetoric. Ravel responds with music of extreme harmonic vagueness, music that even flirts, at times, with bitonality. The spare musical texture is punctured by bell-like octaves on the piano which have been heard at crucial points in the previous songs: now the knell dominates. Even the most striking effects, such as the glassy shimmer that surrounds the climax on the word “agonise,” are kept on this side of expressivity, never quite breaking through the mood of spectral silence.
Ravel, so often acclaimed for his supreme musical taste, makes these songs literally tasteful: like the taste of lime sherbet or raspberry laughs. His music does not interpret but particularizes Mallarmé’s intentional ambiguities, fixes them to a specific and eradicable flavor. It is the taste of infinite dissolution, of longing, of boredom, of chic black lacquered Nothingness.
Ryan discusses his new piano etudes, MIDI maps, and the evolving effort to expand human piano technique to new limits.
Ryan and Andrew Cyr discuss conceptual inspiration for Ryan’s compositions in the upcoming concert LOOP.
“This concerto feels like an arrival point for me artistically that has been in the works for the past four years.”
To say that Cristina Spinei’s experience teaching for Metropolis Ensemble’s Youth Works has been successful would be an understatement. Now halfway through this year’s program at Public School 11 in Manhattan, Cristina wrote a report to capture some of the amazing progress her students are making.
Teaching at P.S. 11 for one semester has been exciting, challenging, and extremely rewarding. My students are imaginative and open to learning about music that they have had little exposure to. On the first day of class, I asked everyone to name a few composers. The responses I got were “Britney Spears, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lopez, 50 Cent, and Mozart.” There was a lot of concern among the students that the music we were learning about would be written by “old dead guys” and would sound “old-fashioned.” After the first month of lessons, the students were able to identify the music of Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Mozart, Vivaldi, and Wynton Marsalis.
From Brazilian percussion to Disney’s Fantasia, Cristina has found some inventive and exciting ways to bring music and those “old dead guys” to life! At the end of the school year, Metropolis Ensemble will present a concert showcasing the students’ work with Cristina.
David Bruce offers his thoughts on creating a chamber orchestra arrangement of Erik Satie’s famous work.
Metropolis Ensemble’s Wet Ink Composer Resident, Ryan Francis, won a competitive commission from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation for his Piano Concerto. The world premiere will be presented by the Metropolis Ensemble’s spring concert, Loop, on April 10, 2008 with pianist Anna Polonsky and conductor Andrew Cyr. Here’s the official announcement:
The American Composers Forum announces the results of the 2007 Jerome Composers Commissioning Program (JCCP). JCCP, now in its 28th year and one of only a few national commissioning programs, supports the production of new musical works by emerging composers. It seeks to boost a composer’s career by offering composers an early commission and more experienced composers a chance to stretch their current boundaries. Composers apply with an ensemble or presenter and request support to underwrite the commissioning fee. Awards this year ranged from $3,000-8,000. A total of 17 projects were funded from a pool of $90,000.
Jerome Foundation was created by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill in 1964, and makes grants to support emerging artists across the performing and visual arts, particularly those based in Minnesota and New York.
American Composers Forum is an organization committed to supporting composers and developing new markets for their music. Through grants, commissions, and performance programs, the Forum provides resources for over 1,700 composers around the world.
Congratulations to Ryan for this exciting achievement!
What happens when you put Vivaldi, bluegrass, and Israeli folk music together? Why is an international cast of top musicians converging on New York City this month? Find out when Metropolis Ensemble conductor Andrew Cyr and featured composer Avner Dorman talk about our fall concert, On Record, with Classical Domain. Read the interview…
Andrew Cyr and Avner Dorman talk about the upcoming concert, On Record, working with Metropolis Ensemble, and Dorman’s music. Read the article…
Avner takes us on a journey through the composition of his concerto for pianist Eliran Avni: from Bartok and Ravel to jazz, rock, and Israeli horahs.
Avner discusses the intimate details of each of his concertos, including his inspiration, important motifs, and some of his personal story.
Program notes for the On Record concert on October 11, 2007, featuring the complete chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman.
Originally, Lior Eitan commissioned me to write a piece for piccolo and harp. While I was composing the first movement, I felt that the music was more fitting to be a concerto. When Lior came over and read the first movement, we both agreed this was the case. As in traditional concertos, Piccolo Concerto has three movements — fast, slow, fast. The musical material is drawn from diverse musical genres and styles: Baroque and Classical music, Ethnic music, Jazz, and Popular music.
Baroque and Classical — The first movement is based on the classical sonata form. Throughout the piece, there are several fugues and canons. I also use many sequential patterns and other clichés of 18th century music in this piece.
Ethnic — to my ears, the Piccolo’s bottom octave sounds very similar to Middle Eastern shepherd’s flutes. In the second movement, especially, I emphasize this similarity by using characteristic modes of Middle-Eastern music, as well as common styles of ornamentation from the region. Another reference to my home region is the imitation of the sounds of desert winds and of the Mediterranean Sea in the second part of the movement.
Jazz and Popular music — From the very first notes of the concerto, the juxtaposition of a steady beat in the bass with syncopations in the upper parts serves as a key compositional technique in this piece. Frequently, the classical and ethnic motives are accompanied by short repetitive patterns. In vast sections of the piece, the soloist’s part is supposed to sound as if it is an improvisation. In certain sections of the piece, these repetitive rhythms together with the Basso-Continuo lines emulate modern drum-machines.
Program notes for the On Record concert on October 11, 2007, featuring the complete chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman. One of my favorite things as a composer is to discover and explore new instruments. When Avi Avital approached me to write a concerto for him, my acquaintance with the mandolin was fairly limited. I had used it in chamber pieces only twice before, and did not know most of the repertoire for the instrument. As I got to know the instrument better, I discovered its diverse sonic and expressive possibilities. The concerto’s main conflicts are between sound and silence and between motion and stasis. One of the things that inspired me to deal with these opposites is the Mandolin’s most basic technique – the tremolo, which is the rapid repetition of notes. The tremolo embodies both motion and stasis. The rapid movement provides momentum, while the pitches stay the same. The concerto can be divided into three main sections that are played attacca:
A slow meditative movement with occasional dynamic outbursts. The tremolo and silences accumulate energy which is released in fast kinetic outbursts. The main motives of the piece are introduced, all of which are based on the minor and major second.
A fast dance like movement that accumulates energy leading to a culmination at its end. The tremolo is slowed down becoming a relentless repetition in the bass - like a heartbeat. The fast movement is constructed much like a Baroque Concerto and a Concerto Grosso. The solo and tutti alternate frequently and in many instances instruments from the orchestra join the Mandolin as additional soloists.
Recapitulation of the opening movement. After the energy is depleted, all that is left for the ending is to delve deeper into the meditation of the opening movement and concentrate on a pure melody and an underlying heartbeat.
I would like to thank Avi Avital for his dedication and commitment throughout the process of creating this piece; for many hours of experimenting with unusual techniques; for introducing me to the Mandolin’s vast repertoire, including Baroque Mandolin, Russian folk music, Bluegrass, Indian music, Brazilian Jazz and Avant-Garde; and for performing the piece with depth and virtuosity.
Program notes for the On Record concert on October 11, 2007, featuring the complete chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman.
I have always loved baroque music. Even as a young child, when I did not care for classical or romantic music, I found baroque very exciting and closer to the music of our day. In retrospect I guess it was the clear rhythms, the strong reliance on the bass, and the extreme contrasts that made this music appeal to me.
In 2002 Israeli conductor Aviv Ron approached me to write a concerto for his orchestra for a series dedicated to Baroque concertos. He wanted a piece based on the music of Handel and Vivaldi, and I gladly accepted the challenge.
I chose to use the opening theme of Handel’s Concerto Grosso opus 6 no.4 as my main motif, and Vivaldi’s signature virtuosic patterns as the rhythmic driving force of the piece. The piece can be described as a “minimalist” take on baroque music, influenced by Górecki, Pärt, and Glass, and taking their techniques to new extremes.
The soloists are comprised of a String Quartet and a Harpsichord. As in a traditional concerto grosso, they serve as both soloists and as leaders for the large ensemble. Structurally, the piece has three large sections — (i) slow, (ii) fast, and (iii) slow. The opening slow section is interrupted twice by outbursts of energy, and the middle fast section gives way to a static exploration of sound toward its culmination.
Concerto Grosso was premiered in February of 2003; its revised version was premiered in November of the same year.
Program notes for the On Record concert on October 11, 2007, featuring the complete chamber orchestra concerti of Avner Dorman. Avner Dorman composed his Concerto in A at the age of 19, while he was serving in the Israeli Army. The piece was first performed by Dmitry Shteinberg and the IDF chamber orchestra conducted by Menachem Nevenhoiz in 1995. In this early piece it is possible to identify some of the compositional trends of Dorman’s later works, mainly the combination of Neo-Classicism with Rock elements; Middle-Eastern rhythms in the fast movements and transparent lyricism in the slow one; Humor and Joie de Vivre, on the one hand, and tormented moments on the other.
“My initial inspiration for the concerto came when I heard a recording of Bach’s keyboard concerto in A major on the radio (performed by piano and strings). I found the bright sound of the Violins doubling the Piano’s top line very exciting, and then and there I improvised the opening tutti of my Concerto in A. This was the first time I wrote a Neo-Classical piece. I found the challenge of doing something new while keeping the transparency and directness of the classical style very appealing. I got even more ecstatic about the piece when I realized that using the traditional harmonic vocabulary enables me to effortlessly integrate Jazz, Pop, and Rock elements into the piece. Even though the piece is dedicated to Vivaldi, one can also find in it allusions to Nina Simone, The Police, The Cure, Stravinsky, and of course, to Bach. Throughout the piece the soloist borrows patterns that are idiomatic to the string instruments of the orchestra.”
The piece is in three movements: fast-slow-fast. The first and third movements use the tutti-solo convention of the Baroque era. The second is a song without words. Movements of the Concerto: I. Allegro II. Andante III. Presto
In October, Metropolis Ensemble is embarking on our debut studio recording. In the very capable hands of David Frost, 2005’s Grammy-winning classical producer of the year, we will produce an exciting new album featuring music from our fall concert, On Record. Each of the four chamber orchestra concertos from composer Avner Dorman will be recorded and scheduled for a late-summer release in 2008. Stay tuned as we continue to share updates about the recording, mastering, and publishing process over the next year!