An Evening of Five World Premieres, New Flute Chamber Music for the New Millenium, Sponsored by the Presser Foundation, To Be Performed by Claire Chase and Colleagues, Friday April 21, 8:00 P.M., Warner Concert Hall Story and Photo by Michael Chipman
	Back to the main story		Program Notes John Fonville: "Striae" for flute and cello "'Striae,' as defined in geology," says Chase, "are tiny grooves or scratches on the surface of a rock that result from the action of moving ice, like a glacier. The piece is notated with absolute precision and ridiculous detail. Fonville writes things like 19-tuplets and nine notes in the space of seven beats, and the effect is that the flute and the cello are always a millisecond apart -- we never line up except for a very few startling structural junctures. It's fast, totally virtuosic, and the changes in mood, dynamics, color and pattern are schizophrenically fast. Fonville is a master of new, extended techniques for the flute, and he has written his own fingerings for multi-phonic effects for the flute. It's very cool." Harvey Sollberger: "Memo for the New Millenium" for solo flute Sollberger says of this piece, "'Memo for the New Millennium' is just that, an accumulation of notations, sketches and jottings gathered together on the cusp of something new and held in place by the (considerable) gravity of a flute and its player. Symbolizing, perhaps, the pace of life at the end of the last millennium, MNM begins fast with a loose-limbed, disjointed melody presented in several bursts. Out of this flux and flow, first one note -- an F -- then several others, A, B and C are highlighted to form a stable constellation. Others are proposed as well, as the music settles into alternating moods of a lyrical, erratic and ritualistic/processional nature. This expansion achieves closure, finally, at the prepared arrival of the flute's two lowest -- and previously unheard -- notes (middle C and B, a semitone lower). From here, things pick up, and the piece ends on the threshold of a return to full speed, positioning itself to head off comet-like into distant regions after its brief sojourn among us. "MNM encapsulates into its short span a great many of my concerns regarding the inflective and expressive capabilities of the flute as I have unearthed and explored them in my life as a player and composer. Something of a summation, then, and the best and most heartfelt offering I can make to its dedicatee, Claire Chase, at the start of what I expect will be her long and distinguished career. Here's to the future!" "Sollberger's piece is gorgeous," says Chase. "He's very supportive of the philosophical and educational ideas behind this project and he wanted to write a piece with that purpose in mind. He is also one of the greatest flutists of the century." Matthew Quayle ('99): "Horoscope" for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, bass, harp and two percussion. Tim Weiss, associate professor of wind conducting will conduct this piece, which, says Chase, "has a virtuosic clarinet part which is very much a duet with the flute. Oberlin alum Campbell MacDonald ('99) will fly in to play the clarinet part. Campbell is one of the greatest wind players I've ever had the privilege of playing with and I'm sure everybody will be happy that he is back for this. He has everything as a performer -- he has chops, fire, he has the innate ability to deliver a beautiful pure line, and he's a really exciting performer. The rest of the ensemble, of course, is terrific." Pauline Oliveros: "Elemental Gallop" for vocalist flute, piano, and cello "'Elemental Gallop' is essentially an improvisation based on a star-shaped chart that Pauline wrote for my trio, the Élan trio. It has a rhythmic cell that provides the basis for improvisatory additive rhythm throughout the shape of the piece, which is entirely up to us. In this piece I have the privilege of working with my trio, and with the diva of the evening, Tony Arnold, who is such an imaginative and intelligent musician!" Huang Ruo ('00): "Yueh Fei" for flute, clarinet, string quartet, piano, and percussion Ruo describes his piece this way: "'Yueh Fei' is based on the epic story of an ancient Chinese folk hero at Song Dynasty named Yueh Fei (1103-1141A.D.), whose exemplary life and career extol the virtues of love, righteousness, loyalty, courage, filial duty and patriotism. At the birth of Yueh Fei in 1103, a giant eagle circled high above the Yueh residence, inspiring Yueh Fei's parents to name him "Soaring Eagle." Yueh Fei was a poet as well. One of his poems named "MAN JIAN HONG," was later set as a folk song which became famous in ancient China. I divided the song into several parts and recreated them, and then I put them into different sections in my piece, mixed together with my modern language. What I am attempting here is to use music to express a contemporary person's view and feeling on an ancient figure, who is so far away from me but who also seems very close to me. The piece is a crossing point of time, space, death and life. "YUEH FEI" is written for Flute & piccolo, Clarinet & Bass Clarinet, Percussion, Piano, Erhu or Violin, Violin, Viola and Cello. Erhu is a Chinese traditional instruments, which has two strings (D & G string) only. The bow is built in between two strings. If an erhu is not available for the performance, it can be replaced by violin. This work has five sections, which should be continually played." Chase says Ruo is "totally fun to work with in rehearsals. We have a catalog of Ruo-isms that we have compiled for the project, including, 'Claire, you sound like old man pushing a cow: don't! and 'You are the female soldier of the army of the twelve monkeys!' 'We will sink or swim, and we must swim!' and 'Music road is hard work, but walkable.' The final movement ends with a Chinese hymn with sparse interjections of percussion and chimes and bowed marimba, beautiful effect, and I think it should be a moving ending to the program. It follows a fiery fourth movement, but Ruo has the guts and the depth as a composer and an artist to end a virtuosic piece in a slow movement in which the players sing. I'm really honored to work with someone as inspiring as Ruo."
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