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POLYTOPE
GEOMETRIES IN SOUND
2 Nights!
Friday February 26, 2016 7pm-11pm
Tickets $65
includes food pairing & sponsored drinks
The American Irish Historical Society invites you to POLYTOPE - an intimate salon concert experience performed by String Noise (Conrad Harris & Pauline Kim Harris) paired with culinary creations by rising star chef Jonah Reider. Featuring the music of Xenakis, Scelsi, Stockhausen, Niblock and a world premiere by Ricardo Romaneiro.
Also on the program, a collaborative installation between chef Jonah Reider, poet Christopher Cahill, composer Ricardo Romaneiro, and engineer Leo Leite called CENTO: The Light & Dark & Famine & Feast of the Ages. Weaving music, poetry, and food, audience members walk, listen, look, and explore freely while thematically pairing food stations throughout the turn-of-the-century mansion.
Lighting by John Houle | Visuals by Christian Hannon
Ambient reception music by NoisioN & Vasko Dukovski
curated by Ricardo Romaneiro
About the Program:
Giacinto Scelsi: Arc-en-Ciel (1973) : Scelsi was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French. He is best known for writing music based around only one pitch, altered in all manners through microtonal oscillations, harmonic allusions, and changes in timbre and dynamics, as paradigmatically exemplified in his revolutionary Quattro Pezzi su una nota sola ("Four Pieces on a single note", 1959). His musical output, which encompassed all Western classical genres except scenic music, remained largely undiscovered even within contemporary musical circles during most of his life. “ArcEnCiel” means rainbow in French.
Iannis Xenakis: Mikka/Mikka S (1971/1976) : Xenakis wrote his first solo for violin. Mikka is a short work formed entirely of a continuously fluctuating glissando line. Four years later, Xenakis added a companion piece, Mikka "S" (the "s" presumably stands for "Salabert," the name of his publisher, to whom the first piece was dedicated). This second violin solo is also short, and is also based on the glissando, but it is more varied, and, for the player, considerably more difficult. Xenakis, always seeking to push the boundaries, both conceptually, for himself, and technically, for the musicians, decided to add another voice to the single, oscillator tone of Mikka. So, Mikka "S" is built on doublestop glissandi, with two strings proceeding semiindependently. This is obviously a tricky business for mortal violinists, but Xenakis in fact takes care to keep the fingers of the left hand from stretching beyond their capacity. For the listener, it is certainly thrilling to hear the two lines and wonder where the other player is hiding! The structure is more involved than the first piece as well, with sections of more activity and others of greater stasis. The final passage breaks away from the doublestops to a new form of glissando. There, the sliding tone is articulated by bowing attacks, adding a rhythmic layer that conveys a greater sense of propulsion as well as the possibility of pattern and phrasing.
Karl Stockhausen: Tierkreis (1974) : Stockhausen composed the 12 melodies of the star signs for music boxes and produced them in collaboration with technicians at the Reuge music box factory in Ste. Croix, Switzerland. In 1989 the Reuge family sold the company, and the production of these music boxes was discontinued. After extended negotiations on the part of Suzanne Stephens, and on the occasion of the composer's 70th birth day, an agreement was reached for the one-time manufacture of a limited edition. Each of these music boxes were checked by Suzanne Stephens and Antonio Pérez Abellán on location at the factory and adjusted there before they were shipped to Kürten. This 70th Birthday Edition is limited to 40 music boxes for each star sign, numbered 1 to 40. They may be ordered directly from the Stockhausen-Verlag. The melodies are encased in light-colored natural wood boxes measuring 17.7 x 12.1 cm. The notes of the ZODIAC melody – hand-written and signed by the composer – are silk-screened onto the lid of each music box.
Phill Niblock: Unipolar Dance (2013) : Phill Niblock is a New York-based minimalist composer and multi-media musician and director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation born in the flames of 1968's barricade-hopping. His influence has had more impact on younger composers such as Susan Stenger, Lois V Vierk, David First, and Glenn Branca. He's even worked with Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo on "Guitar two, for four" which is actually for five guitarists. This is Minimalism in the classic sense of the word, if that makes sense. Niblock constructs big 24-track digitally-processed monolithic microtonal drones. The result is sound without melody or rhythm. Movement is slow, geologically slow. Changes are almost imperceptible, and his music has a tendency of creeping up on you.
Ricardo Romaneiro: Duel (2016 World Premiere) : A new work composed for String Noise and electronics where musical cells, motifs and fragments are transformed and manipulated creating a kaleidescope of sound.
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Menu Sample by Jonah Reider (subject to change)
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ABOUT STRING NOISE is an "enterprising violin duo" in NYC. Classical avantgarde violinists Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim, who are married, have expanded the two violin repertoire in over 30 new works to include larger collaborations with electronics, projections and dance. Their first feature album "The Book of Strange Positions" was released on NORTHERN SPY RECORDS in November 2015. Tiny Mis Tapes describes this collection of original works and arrangements by Eric Lyon of punk covers by Bad Brains, Violent Femmes, Deerhoof, Radiohead, and Black Flag as a "mix of classic punk covers and ZERO APOLOGIES."
String Noise was highlighted in Performa 2011 with artist Will Cotton and was the featured ensemble for the launch of composers collective Index 0. Premieres include works by Christian Wolff, John King, Phill Niblock, Caleb Burhans, David Lang, Annie Gosfield, Bernhard Lang and John Zorn. String Noise has performed at Issue Project Room, Roulette, EXAPNO, Rockwood Music Hall and the Stone and has been heard on WNYC and WKCR.
As curators, Conrad and Pauline presented Drawing Sound: Part II at the Drawing Center a three night minifestival featuring artists Alvin Lucier, Greg Saunier and Jad Fair.
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American Irish Historical Society is a historical landmark located on Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, serves as a focal point for concerts, lectures, art exhibits, theatrical productions & special events. The Society hosts a wide array of events and artists who have included Patti Smith, Bono, Elvis Costello, as well as an ongoing chamber music concert series with The Juilliard School. The venue features a turn of the century historically preserved interior that offers an intimate experience and setting.
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