She is missed
The first time I ever saw a work by Pina Bausch was back in 2004, Ana, Oscar, Laine and I went to see Für die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen at BAM. I had, of course, heard of this remarkable choreographer who was the giant of inspiration for pretty much every dancer I had worked with. I wasn’t prepared for such beauty, such humor, and such overwhelming brilliance.
I was deeply saddened to hear of her sudden and tragic passing, as my friend Jen put it: “I guess heaven needed an amazing choreographer.”
Now THAT’s something.
Acoustic
I recently went to two very very different entirely acoustic performances. It’s amazing to me how rare this is these days.
On Friday night I attended a marvelous performance at the Rubin Museum of Art by Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan and Michael Harrison. The Rubin is dedicated to presenting work the way it’s meant to be heard, and this is the second series by Mashkoor Ali Khan that I’ve seen there that used no amplification. The natural vibrations of North Indian music are particularly magical when everything is acoustic.
Then on Sunday I went to see/hear my friend Megan Schubert and Jeffrey Gavett sing Stockhausen’s Am Himmel Wandre Ich… in Sakura Park way uptown. This concert was not only acoustic, but it was outdoors, and it was raining torrentially. Plus the gazebo it was being performed under seemed to be the home of several dozens of birds.
All things considered, including the rain, I have to say I enjoyed myself at the Stockhausen much more than the raga concert. These are the sorts of events that I idealized in my head before I moved here. Wildly avant-garde music presented in a strange venue and sparsely attended by a devout few.
The music itself, the rain, the communal aspect of all trying to huddle under a gazebo, the sounds of birds, and the curious onlookers in the distance all made for a brilliant and beautiful evening.
It’s not often I get to see purely acoustic concerts. I went to a performance of Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes a few months back at Issue Project Room, a quite small venue. There were only a few people there, maybe 20-25 and we were probably 15 feet away from the pianist. For no discernible reason, this was amplified, distractingly so in fact.
I think too often we fall back on amplification to make up for less than ideal performance situations. But the Stockhausen concert on sunday would have been completely ruined by amplification, I’m glad they decided to let the music and performance be what it is. Amplification is another valid tool, but then again, so is acoustic sound. Let’s have a return to sound as it should be: Acoustic or Amplified, let the decision be a decision, not a default.
The art of the Facebook Status
Two of my friends recently posted delightfully long, interesting, and quirky Facebook statuses – I thought I’d share them with you here:
Gerard had a dream:
Gerard Forde dreamed that he was trying on a Walter Van Beirendonck coat, sort of a combination Burberry mac and a Parker. The front and back were the same (a bit like Margiela) and it had numerous layers of lining from vintage ballgowns, including two printed silk linings taken from early 1990s Westwood dresses. It was reduced to €1300 in the sale. Does this mean I might be gay?
And Michael had an extraterrestrial encounter
Michael Theodore so weird–an alien spacecraft landed just now on the lawn, and out popped seven little green men, each playing a nose flute in a flamboyant, triumphal style, and as they built to a cadence of joyous paroxysms, Sarah Palin emerged from the ship and asked if I was cool with a pipeline cutting through the property. I told her it wasn’t my place, so I couldn’t really say…
Beautiful.
I feel like I’ve seen more of these longer-form / more existential status updates recently. Maybe it’s because of the new Facebook layout, maybe it’s because I’m getting too used to a 140 character limit. Regardless, it’s a trend I welcome heartily.
oh… and hey … speaking of Facebook, you can become a fan of Avant Media on Facebook now too… it’s all very exciting.
Doleo Æternus – a look ahead
It’s looking more and more like the Just Intonation World Premiere of Doleo Æternus is going to happen in New York this fall. Updates with exact dates and venues will be coming in the coming weeks.
I’m obviously very excited by this fact. So I’m going to do something I don’t normally do, and post an excerpt of the work in-progress.
I’ve been rehearsing with the violinist Drew Blumberg, and we’re going to be putting together a pretty interesting ensemble for this premiere.
Doleo Æternus (Ira into Mador) VI-xiv-2009 16:33:51″ – 16:44:33″ (Brooklyn):
Performers: