IonSound will perform on Sunday, April 11 at Bellefield. Here’s a preview of their concert courtesy percussionist Eliseo Rael.

Bellefield Hall Auditorium
ProArts Tickets

IonSound Project completes their Reduce-Renew-Recycle season with a music by Joan Tower, Daron Hagen, and Francis Poulenc. Featuring guest pianist Amy Williams in Lukas Foss’ mesmerizing Solo Observed.  This concert will be paired with a unique installation project aimed at promoting recycling in the city of Pittsburgh.

Bellefield Hall Auditorium
FREE

IonSound Project will perform new music by Pitt’s grad student composers as part of their ongoing residency with the Pitt’s Department of Music.

Bellefield Hall Auditorium
Tickets available at the door.

IonSound plays works that examine the different facets and stages of renewal including

Michael Torke’s After the Forest Fire
Libby Larsen’s Firebrand
and a new work by Pittsburgh area composer Jonathan Kolm

An exihibit featuring artists that work with recycled or renewable materials including local artists Amy Rappa and Lauren Braun will be on display.

This essay was written to be printed in the program for IonSound’s Nov. 1, 2009 concert, but I post it here in order to give advance access to those interested in such things.

Reduce. To lessen. To make smaller. To make do with less. Imperatives to reduce are all around us, with motives from virtually every aspect of life. Reduce calories to lose weight, reduce spending to get out of debt, reduce waste to save the planet. It’s easy to think of reducing as a hardship; eating less means I’ll be hungry, spending less means I’ll have less fun, using less means I’ll have to work harder. So we focus on the rewards and try to eat our spinach with a smile. We force ourselves to go without so that we’ll feel more attractive, get out of debt, and have a planet left for our grandchildren. But reducing isn’t always about suffering. In the culinary world, one reduces liquids such as wine, balsamic vinegar, or stock to intensify the flavors and increase the pleasure of eating. In many spiritual traditions, the act of choosing to go without something is taken in order to gain awareness of the self and of one’s connection to the world. And once the initial shock of behavioral change is past, many people find that eating less, spending less, or living in an environmentally conscious way simply feels good. The act of reducing becomes something of an end in itself.

Although tonight’s program came about as a direct result of IonSound’s thinking about how music can or can’t interact with the extramusical ideas related to “going green”, the other meanings of reduce are relevant as well. All three of the works you’ll hear already exist in versions for much larger instrumental forces–50+ players in each case. So it’s sort of like music on a diet. Certainly the option to play a piece with 6 rather than 60 players will cost less. But why choose to reduce orchestration when there are already many pieces that exist for this instrumentation? IonSound already has an excellent piece by Philip Thompson in our repertoire, so shouldn’t we just play that again? Certainly any living composer knows that writing an orchestral work for large forces is likely not going to result in hundreds of performances. It will take a lot of hard work. Rescoring a piece for smaller forces not only makes it possible to hear a work more often, it also allows the composer (and anyone else fortunate enough to hear both versions) to hear the musical material in more than one way. In this case, think of the cooking sense of reduction. The incredible energy of the large scale orchestration is distilled into a kind of hyper-excitement in the six-player version, and there is a visceral quality to the sheer thought of one player covering ideas that were originally given to three players. It’s not for nothing that the old saying goes, “sometimes less is more.”

But why choose works by composers who are thought to have been among the finest orchestrators who ever lived? Isn’t a symphonic work for large forces immutable because that was how the composer chose to write it and thus represent his or her ultimate intentions? And aren’t these pieces already getting plenty of performances? There is in fact a long tradition of composers changing their own orchestration for various situations, or approving radical reductions by other persons. Ultimately, practicality has always been a driving force in music. Beethoven first published his Violin Concerto as a Piano Concerto. Symphonies and string quartets alike were sold in arrangements for piano, both two- and four-hand versions. Granted, things did become less fluid as the Romantic period progressed and the concept “Masterpiece” became the cornerstone of programming, but no less a figure than Schönberg himself made chamber versions of works by Mahler and others for a small ensemble, suitable for performance in homes and small halls. Piano rolls exist of Mahler playing his own 4th Symphony in a solo transcription. Kindertotenlieder also exists in a version for voice and piano by Mahler, not as a rehearsal convention, but as a viable performance option. Ravel’s original setting of these five movements was for piano four-hands. For these composers, this music contained ideas and relationships that could speak in more than one setting, and adapted appropriately for each context. “Reduction” for them was as much a part of the creative process as it was a practical measure. Their music was a fact of the present moment and the present situation, however large or small the underlying idea. And regardless of the size of orchestration, the compositional choices at the core of these two works possess a lean sense of economy that lends itself well to a small ensemble. The present reductions are drawn largely from the full orchestrations, but not without consulting the composers’ own piano versions. The music is all theirs, although the perspective may be somewhat different; I was not there in 1905 or 1910. How could I know for certain what they would think? I can only hope that they would understand that this is music that we love, and want to share with our friends, and indulge us in our musing.

Regardless of the origin or intention of a piece, we best honor art by noticing it, we best notice by focusing our attention, and our attention is captured differently than it was a century ago. In this case, we put forward the idea of reduction in all of its senses, but most particularly that of relating to our world in a responsible manner, through doing more with less and finding new joys in the act of so doing. And what has all this to do with the music of Mahler, Ravel, or Thompson? I’m not entirely sure. But if you listen for an hour, maybe you can tell me.

Rob Frankenberry, October 23, 2009

]]> http://www.pittsburghnewmusicnet.com/2009/10/28/reduce-a-program-essay-for-ionsound/feed/ 1 http://www.pittsburghnewmusicnet.com/2009/10/01/ionsound-in-new-york-loop-2-4-3-and-sounds-of-africa-in-the-burgh/ http://www.pittsburghnewmusicnet.com/2009/10/01/ionsound-in-new-york-loop-2-4-3-and-sounds-of-africa-in-the-burgh/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:45:50 +0000 Phil Thompson http://www.pittsburghnewmusicnet.com/?p=1444 It really is a great weekend for Pittsburgh’s new music scene, and Im not just saying that. IonSound Project makes their New York debut on the Phoenix Concerts on Friday night at 8 p.m. in the Church of Saint Matthew and Saint Timothy, so if you’re in the New York area and reading this, come out and support IonSound. And just because we’re exporting one of our finest new music groups for the weekend, it doesn’t mean there isn’t some excellent music to be heard in the Burgh. Loop 2.4.3 plays at Garfield Artworks Friday at 10 p.m., and Friday afternoon also marks the beginning of a two-day Sounds of Africa Music Festival at Chatham University. The festival will explore contemporary African composition through panel discussions and performances. You can find out about the local concerts on the Events Calendar.

Bellefield Hall Auditorium

ProArts Tickets

IonSound Project launches its Reduce-Renew-Recycle season with chamber versions of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Philip Thompson’s Percussion Concerto–Remixed, and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. The program will feature contralto Daphne Alderson and video artist Chris Ivey.

In case you missed this on the Events Calendar (which now appears prominently at the top of the sidebar), You have not one, but two opportunities to hear IonSound Project this Sunday, June 28. In the morning you can hear the group at 10:30 a.m. at Mellon Park for the Bach, Beethoven, and Brunch. While IonSound won’t be performing any Bach or Beethoven, there is a rumor of a world premiere by Brunch. Looking forward to that one myself.

If 10:30 in the morning is too early for you, you can hear a different program at 7 p.m. at Larryville’s Your Inner Vagabond (which includes works by BYOB, another one of my favorites).

All the details are here.

Mellon Park at 10:30 a.m., free

Your Inner Vagabond at 7 p.m., $10 at the door

IonSound Project will present two different programs in two very different venues on Sunday, June 28, 2009.  The first is a full concert on Pittsburgh’s popular Bach, Beethoven, and Brunch series in Mellon Park from 10:30 am-12:00pm.  This concert will feature IonSound favorites from over the years including works by Martinu, Milhaud, and Satie.  Bring your best picnic brunch and join us for this relaxing and fun event.

Later, that evening, IonSound Project will collaborate with folk musician Mark Dignam at Lawrenceville’s Your Inner Vagabond Coffeehouse and World Lounge at 7 pm.  This program will take on an edgier bent with works by Terry Riley, Daron Hagen, and new works by Jeremy Beck.  IonSound will also present a collaborative set with Mark featuring brand new arrangements of his works.  Tickets are $10, and can be purchased at the door.  BYOB.

Sunday June 28, 2009, 10:30 am-12:00 pm
Mellon Park (corner of 5th and Shady avenues in Shadyside)
IonSound Project
Free

BECK Slow Motion
ZAHAB entelechronicity
MARTINU Trio-mvmts 1 & 3
MILHAUD  Suite for clarinet, cello, and piano
SATIE  Three pieces in the Shape of a Pear
MONPOU Paysages
REICH  Music for Pieces of Wood
AMAYA Trio
TORKE Telephone Book (1 & 3)

Concert and a Coffee

Sunday June 28, 2009,  7:00 pm
Your Inner Vagabond Coffeehouse and World Lounge (4120 Butler Street Lawrenceville, PA 15201)
IonSound Project with Mark Dignam, folk singer
$10 General admission

BECK In Flight Until Mysterious Night
BECK Third Delphic Hymn
KOLM Haven
RILEY In C
SKIDMORE Whispers
HAGEN Angel Band mvt I