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There's really nothing I can say to describe the feelings of a primarily improvised concert to someone who has not participated in one. However, since this is a journal and I write in it, I will make the attempt anyway. The crazed all-day rehearsal preceding a crazed but laid-back concert may have tired some of us out, but I have not been tired since Thursday. Maybe Friday morning.
I made it to the meeting after school because of a fortuitous teacherly absence. I made it to the rehearsal on Saturday an hour early (the personal story is really inseperable from the concert experience), in order to make use of my new USB memory stick and import 512 MB of music onto Reggie's computer, and various other pre-rehearsal things that needed to be done. Having practiced and improvised as much as we could without every consituent of the quartet, we were happy to have them all half an hour late. I cannot speak for everyone, because my perspective is extremely skewed, but the eight-hour rehearsal might as well have been fifteen minutes for all it dragged or was unredeemable. I'll admit to beating a couple of dead horses on my own quartet movement, but the day went by so fast, and then the evening, and then the night, that I panicked at the thought of leaving. Not because the music wasn't in good shape, not because I wasn't done with the rehearsal, but with the same kind of childish complaint that it hasn't been long enough that I used to get when I had friends with whom I had an allotted amount of time to stay. It was too fun, not enough, I didn't want to leave. So I didn't. Of course, I had the excuse that Rainey wasn't happy with the program notes and we needed to fix them and write more and it was too late at night to do it now (not that that wasn't a legitimate priority).
So I stayed. And there were more program changes. Every concert this happens; I think we should just put the pieces in a splatter on the program not in an order... it's the Uncertain Outcome Ensemble, who knows which pieces are going first? We added a piano piece to fill out the time, and it ended up being one of the best ones. We decided abruptly to have a voice/piano improv and it turned out to be spectacular.
We were almost late, but then so was everyone else. It was a concert in the tradition of comp club concerts; it's stressful because you care about it and you want it to be good and it's all last-minute, but because you care you work hard and it IS good, no matter how unprepared you were, no matter how casual the ambience is, no matter what random misfortune occurs in the surrounding timeframe. It's such a grassroots, neohippie organization-by-lack-thereof, that even as the train-wrecks occur I cherish the moment and wish it weren't over. This may have something to do with the company, but I genuinely think the experience would be nearly as fulfilling if it didn't have something to do with the company. Or, rather, specific company. Because the club as a whole is also very good company. It's a good thing we all like each other enough to have eight-hour rehearsals that are productive, and to have relieved but hyper dinners at Katz's after concerts.
[
UNCERTAIN OUTCOME ENSEMBLE
Edward Atkinson, vibraphone
Travis Booker, Violoncello
Andrew Broz, Violoncello
O'Neill Haynes, Voice
Laura Jacobs, Violin
Danny Kamins, Saxophone
Mercy Karpicke, Violoncello
Matt Klein, Bass
Reggie Mathalone, Bass and Piano
Ryan Stickney, Voice
Rainey Weber, Viola
Victoria Wheeler, Flute and Piccolo
Uncertain Outcome Quartet:
Laura Jacobs, Violin
Rainey Weber, Viola
Andrew Broz, Violoncello
Reggie Mathalone, Bass
HSPVA Composition Club
Rodolfo Morales, Sponsor
Concert in Tribute to Robert Avalon
Sunday October 10th, 2004 Miller Outdoor Theater
Quartet Improvisation - Uncertain Outcome Quartet
True - Mathalone - Reggie, Piano
One - Uncertain Outcome
Elegaic Impromptu - Ryan; Reggie, Piano
Minor Third Etude "Obviously" - Mathalone - Reggie, Piano
Improvisation - Laura; Victoria, Piccolo; Edward; Danny
Philip Glass Metamorphosis (number three?) - Rodolfo Morales, Piano (this replaced Avalon's Sonata because Mr. Morales had practiced his right hand to exhaustion)
Clapping Improvisation - Uncertain Outcome
Cello Duet Improvisation - Andrew; Mercy
Flute/Piano/Cello Improvisation - Victoria; Reggie; Andrew
INTERMISSION
Two Selections from a collection of quartets In Honor of Robert Avalon
Cold - Stickney
Sear - Mathalone
Uncertain Outcome Quartet
Quintet Improvisation - Uncertain Outcome Quartet minus Andrew +Mercy +Matt
Improvisation on Rumi Poetry - Ryan; Travis; Andrew; Reggie, Bass
Impromptu Cello Trio - Andrew; Mercy; Travis
Resonant Improvisation - O'Neill; Mercy; Andrew; Matt; Danny
Sin Dormir - Mathalone, Stickney, Broz (lyrics by Broz translated by Avalon)
Ryan; Reggie, Piano; Andrew
Group Improvisation - Uncertain Outcome
]
[
Two years ago, the interest in composition at HSPVA was coalescing. We began plans for the organization for the club the next school year. A little into the year, there was a cello master class that Robert Avalon attended, having given the cellist a ride. After the master class he casually stood up and asked if there were any composers in the school, and the founding members of the club answered.
After our neglecting to tell him the room number for our first meeting, in a subsequently more successful one we showed him our recordings of ten-second songs and attempts at improvisation. Despite several members' reluctance to go out on a limb, he showed no mercy (PUN, PUN, do you remember when Mercy wouldn't improvise?) and made us all try improvising. We tried, and have continued to try, with varying degrees of success.
In the next semester he devoted about four hours a week to us, asking no recompense, and held meetings at Rebekah Lodge every Sunday and attended meetings on Tuesdays after school, bringing famous composers like Errollyn Wallen to school for master classes.
He found us gigs at various eclectic shows around town. Barely an hour before our end-of-year concert, he was diagnosed with cancer. He spoke, conducted, and played on it, unfazed.
He taught us the importance of creating new music, and that it is equally important, if not more so, than reproducing old music. He taught us to compose in a communal way, using the energy of the moment in a gestalt of the collective mind. He taught us how to improvise.
Rodolfo Morales, one of Avalon's proteges, has facilitated the club's involvement in the community and given it innumerable musical opportunities. The Miller Outdoor Theater concert is a result of his outreach on the club's behalf.
His modern music class commissioned pieces from the composition club last year, a great help and inspiration to the newly official school unit. When the club's spring concert included piano pieces beyond the ability of the club's pianists, he stepped in with a few days' notice and a few rehearsals' practice together.
Mr. Morales has just been assigned the position of director of the HSPVA piano department, as well as following in Avalon's footsteps as Artistic Director of the Foundation for Modern Music. Somehow, he still finds time to sponsor the composition club's efforts.
Program Notes:
"Minor Third Etude," also known as "Obviously in memory of Robert Avalon," evokes his inimitable drive and vigor, as well as his affinity for minor thirds. It recalls Avalon's bombastic and abrupt pianistic style.
The plan was to write a collection of unorthodox (the combination of violin, viola, cello and bass is an unusual, appreciated by Avalon) quartets at the end of the year to thank Avalon for his unquantifiable help. As circumstances changed, so did plans, and now they are a tribute to his memory. The two finished quartets, "Cold" and "Sear," are named in a tradition that Avalon had little time to continue after his first monosyllabic piece name, "Zeal." After a concert including this piece, he called in the audience to come up with more words evocative of moods that would indicate the affect of a piece. "Cold," actually written after Avalon's death, was an attempt to follow his directions in keeping to one or two melodies and developing them further, as well as writing horizontally in the second part. The piece has its beginnings in a practice room at school, trying to express the ineffable abandonment felt at one's teacher's departure. "Sear," a slightly less dismal outlook, celebrates his boundless energy. With quotes from Avalon's piano concerto, it incorporates multiple genres, from a Shostakovich-esque fugue to traditional tango rhythms to near-baroque counterpoint, an amalgam of ideas with no boundaries, such as Avalon espoused.
Another monosyllabic mood piece, "True" also tries to develop one idea in totality.
Sin Dormir was written at Avalon's suggestion in honor of the American tour of a Mexican singer, Carlos Alberto. The assignment was to write from the point of view of someone without sight.
Translation (English by Broz):
When I cannot sleep, I go outside
To feel the night air on my skin
I feel the rumble of a passing train
Long before its roar drowns out
The clicking of the canes of bamboo
In a fall breeze.
I am so glad I have no school tomorrow. I can go to old school instead. Without the work. And get my adapter and a few other things back from the one who lives at what amounts to my other house (aside from my dorm).
I made it to the meeting after school because of a fortuitous teacherly absence. I made it to the rehearsal on Saturday an hour early (the personal story is really inseperable from the concert experience), in order to make use of my new USB memory stick and import 512 MB of music onto Reggie's computer, and various other pre-rehearsal things that needed to be done. Having practiced and improvised as much as we could without every consituent of the quartet, we were happy to have them all half an hour late. I cannot speak for everyone, because my perspective is extremely skewed, but the eight-hour rehearsal might as well have been fifteen minutes for all it dragged or was unredeemable. I'll admit to beating a couple of dead horses on my own quartet movement, but the day went by so fast, and then the evening, and then the night, that I panicked at the thought of leaving. Not because the music wasn't in good shape, not because I wasn't done with the rehearsal, but with the same kind of childish complaint that it hasn't been long enough that I used to get when I had friends with whom I had an allotted amount of time to stay. It was too fun, not enough, I didn't want to leave. So I didn't. Of course, I had the excuse that Rainey wasn't happy with the program notes and we needed to fix them and write more and it was too late at night to do it now (not that that wasn't a legitimate priority).
So I stayed. And there were more program changes. Every concert this happens; I think we should just put the pieces in a splatter on the program not in an order... it's the Uncertain Outcome Ensemble, who knows which pieces are going first? We added a piano piece to fill out the time, and it ended up being one of the best ones. We decided abruptly to have a voice/piano improv and it turned out to be spectacular.
We were almost late, but then so was everyone else. It was a concert in the tradition of comp club concerts; it's stressful because you care about it and you want it to be good and it's all last-minute, but because you care you work hard and it IS good, no matter how unprepared you were, no matter how casual the ambience is, no matter what random misfortune occurs in the surrounding timeframe. It's such a grassroots, neohippie organization-by-lack-thereof, that even as the train-wrecks occur I cherish the moment and wish it weren't over. This may have something to do with the company, but I genuinely think the experience would be nearly as fulfilling if it didn't have something to do with the company. Or, rather, specific company. Because the club as a whole is also very good company. It's a good thing we all like each other enough to have eight-hour rehearsals that are productive, and to have relieved but hyper dinners at Katz's after concerts.
[
UNCERTAIN OUTCOME ENSEMBLE
Edward Atkinson, vibraphone
Travis Booker, Violoncello
Andrew Broz, Violoncello
O'Neill Haynes, Voice
Laura Jacobs, Violin
Danny Kamins, Saxophone
Mercy Karpicke, Violoncello
Matt Klein, Bass
Reggie Mathalone, Bass and Piano
Ryan Stickney, Voice
Rainey Weber, Viola
Victoria Wheeler, Flute and Piccolo
Uncertain Outcome Quartet:
Laura Jacobs, Violin
Rainey Weber, Viola
Andrew Broz, Violoncello
Reggie Mathalone, Bass
HSPVA Composition Club
Rodolfo Morales, Sponsor
Concert in Tribute to Robert Avalon
Sunday October 10th, 2004 Miller Outdoor Theater
Quartet Improvisation - Uncertain Outcome Quartet
True - Mathalone - Reggie, Piano
One - Uncertain Outcome
Elegaic Impromptu - Ryan; Reggie, Piano
Minor Third Etude "Obviously" - Mathalone - Reggie, Piano
Improvisation - Laura; Victoria, Piccolo; Edward; Danny
Philip Glass Metamorphosis (number three?) - Rodolfo Morales, Piano (this replaced Avalon's Sonata because Mr. Morales had practiced his right hand to exhaustion)
Clapping Improvisation - Uncertain Outcome
Cello Duet Improvisation - Andrew; Mercy
Flute/Piano/Cello Improvisation - Victoria; Reggie; Andrew
INTERMISSION
Two Selections from a collection of quartets In Honor of Robert Avalon
Cold - Stickney
Sear - Mathalone
Uncertain Outcome Quartet
Quintet Improvisation - Uncertain Outcome Quartet minus Andrew +Mercy +Matt
Improvisation on Rumi Poetry - Ryan; Travis; Andrew; Reggie, Bass
Impromptu Cello Trio - Andrew; Mercy; Travis
Resonant Improvisation - O'Neill; Mercy; Andrew; Matt; Danny
Sin Dormir - Mathalone, Stickney, Broz (lyrics by Broz translated by Avalon)
Ryan; Reggie, Piano; Andrew
Group Improvisation - Uncertain Outcome
]
[
Two years ago, the interest in composition at HSPVA was coalescing. We began plans for the organization for the club the next school year. A little into the year, there was a cello master class that Robert Avalon attended, having given the cellist a ride. After the master class he casually stood up and asked if there were any composers in the school, and the founding members of the club answered.
After our neglecting to tell him the room number for our first meeting, in a subsequently more successful one we showed him our recordings of ten-second songs and attempts at improvisation. Despite several members' reluctance to go out on a limb, he showed no mercy (PUN, PUN, do you remember when Mercy wouldn't improvise?) and made us all try improvising. We tried, and have continued to try, with varying degrees of success.
In the next semester he devoted about four hours a week to us, asking no recompense, and held meetings at Rebekah Lodge every Sunday and attended meetings on Tuesdays after school, bringing famous composers like Errollyn Wallen to school for master classes.
He found us gigs at various eclectic shows around town. Barely an hour before our end-of-year concert, he was diagnosed with cancer. He spoke, conducted, and played on it, unfazed.
He taught us the importance of creating new music, and that it is equally important, if not more so, than reproducing old music. He taught us to compose in a communal way, using the energy of the moment in a gestalt of the collective mind. He taught us how to improvise.
Rodolfo Morales, one of Avalon's proteges, has facilitated the club's involvement in the community and given it innumerable musical opportunities. The Miller Outdoor Theater concert is a result of his outreach on the club's behalf.
His modern music class commissioned pieces from the composition club last year, a great help and inspiration to the newly official school unit. When the club's spring concert included piano pieces beyond the ability of the club's pianists, he stepped in with a few days' notice and a few rehearsals' practice together.
Mr. Morales has just been assigned the position of director of the HSPVA piano department, as well as following in Avalon's footsteps as Artistic Director of the Foundation for Modern Music. Somehow, he still finds time to sponsor the composition club's efforts.
Program Notes:
"Minor Third Etude," also known as "Obviously in memory of Robert Avalon," evokes his inimitable drive and vigor, as well as his affinity for minor thirds. It recalls Avalon's bombastic and abrupt pianistic style.
The plan was to write a collection of unorthodox (the combination of violin, viola, cello and bass is an unusual, appreciated by Avalon) quartets at the end of the year to thank Avalon for his unquantifiable help. As circumstances changed, so did plans, and now they are a tribute to his memory. The two finished quartets, "Cold" and "Sear," are named in a tradition that Avalon had little time to continue after his first monosyllabic piece name, "Zeal." After a concert including this piece, he called in the audience to come up with more words evocative of moods that would indicate the affect of a piece. "Cold," actually written after Avalon's death, was an attempt to follow his directions in keeping to one or two melodies and developing them further, as well as writing horizontally in the second part. The piece has its beginnings in a practice room at school, trying to express the ineffable abandonment felt at one's teacher's departure. "Sear," a slightly less dismal outlook, celebrates his boundless energy. With quotes from Avalon's piano concerto, it incorporates multiple genres, from a Shostakovich-esque fugue to traditional tango rhythms to near-baroque counterpoint, an amalgam of ideas with no boundaries, such as Avalon espoused.
Another monosyllabic mood piece, "True" also tries to develop one idea in totality.
Sin Dormir was written at Avalon's suggestion in honor of the American tour of a Mexican singer, Carlos Alberto. The assignment was to write from the point of view of someone without sight.
Translation (English by Broz):
When I cannot sleep, I go outside
To feel the night air on my skin
I feel the rumble of a passing train
Long before its roar drowns out
The clicking of the canes of bamboo
In a fall breeze.
I am so glad I have no school tomorrow. I can go to old school instead. Without the work. And get my adapter and a few other things back from the one who lives at what amounts to my other house (aside from my dorm).
