The concert I attended was presented by The American Composers Alliance. It was held on Tuesday April 2, at Christ and St. Stephen Church 120 West 69th Street, New York City. The program consisted of works by composers of The American Composers Alliance.
The program opened with two pieces for solo piano by Otto Luening, Fantasia Etudes and Chords at Night performed by pianist Marc Peloquin. The first etude was slow and stately contrasted by the second etude, which was lively and energetic. The second etude had many brisk scale passages that kept resurfacing throughout the piece. The scale passages grow into a frenzy building up to the end where the piece becomes more chordal. The rhythmic multiple meter passages really showed off Peloquin’s proficiency on the instrument. The selection Chords at Night balanced the rapid scalar Fantasia Etudes with gentle ascending and descending major and minor seconds. There were many rhythmic chordal motives that tied the composition together.
The program continued with a piece for trombone, piano, and percussion titled A Bubble in My Eye by Elias Tanenbaum. This piece was alive with color and movement from all the instruments. The interaction between the performers was interesting and exciting to watch. The piece opens with the trombone in a great crescendo into the piano while the pianist holds down the sustain pedal. This effect worked beautifully inside the performing space. The large use of dynamics was evident throughout the piece.
The many modern playing techniques such as plucking the piano strings and bowing the vibraphone made the piece not only pleasing to listen to but also interesting to watch. The piece overall was not very melodic or tonal although there were a few melodic moments in the bowed vibraphone. The piece eventually moved into many quick and rhythmic parts for the piano, trombone and xylophone. At this time the composer used many major and minor seconds along with many changes in meter. To end the piece the composer revisited the opening statement of the growing crescendo into the open piano.
Elliot Schwartz’s Prelude, Aria, and Variations for violin and percussion seemed to be a musical conversation between violinist and percussionist. It opens with a lot of tremolo in both the vibraphone and violin. There were also moments where it seemed as if the percussionist and the violin were playing in unison as if they were one performer. The Aria movement was non-tonal and used more of the drums rather than the keyboard instruments, which contrasted the violins’ use of tremolo. The Variations made use of the chimes, and temple blocks. There was unison playing between the violin and xylophone.
The eclectic piece Sappho’s Breath is an opera by Rodney Waschka. It was performed beautifully by Beth Griffith. It seems to me that it would take a certain kind of performer to pull off a piece like this and Ms. Griffith did a great job. Sappho’s Breath takes the listener on an imaginary journey, where Sappho, a poet from Ancient Greece, has ascended up from Hades to speak to the audience. The piece is for solo soprano and electronic tape but the soprano is also asked to play various percussion instruments as well. Musically, the melodic parts of the piece are sung on a neutral syllable "La". The narrative portion is spoken. The performer engages with the audience throughout the piece.
The final selection of the evening was Night Music for solo piano by Elizabeth Bell. The piece consists of two movements the first of which is slow and a little more tonal than the second movement. The first movement is very chordal with lots of major and minor seconds and well as sevenths. The second movement has different scale like passages that move furiously throughout the piece. Although I enjoyed this piano piece very much I found it difficult to listen to after the exhausting Sappho’s Breath. I believe that the concert order of the program effected my level of concentration towards the final selection of the evening.