In View Of Distant Lands by YST Conservatory New Music Ensemble10 Apr 2016, Sun, 5pmEsplanade Recital Studio

1/5Spectrum Minimalism

EsplanadePresents

SpectrumEel BoneEel Bone is closely based on “Tulang Lindung”, a movement from the overture to the Balinese wayang kulit shadow play, as performed by a gender wayang quartet. An older version of this piece—the version from Kuta village as taught by I Wayan Lotring—was faithfully transcribed for two pianos by Colin McPhee as part of his Balinese Ceremonial Music. Eel Bone is based on the considerably different modern version from Sukawati village as taught to composer Evan Ziporyn by I Wayan Loceng in 1988, and Ziporyn’s translation is far from literal.

Eel Bone was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and premiered by them at the Artaud Theatre, San Francisco, in May 1996.

Programme notes by Evan Ziporyn

There will be a Gender Demonstration on Tulang Lindung before the performance of Eel Bone.

Evan Ziporyn Composer

Evan Ziporyn (b. 1959, Chicago) has composed for many individuals and ensembles, including the Silk Road Ensemble So Percussion, Maya Beiser, and Bang on a Can. He studied at Eastman, Yale & UC Berkeley with Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick & Gerard Grisey. He is the Inaugural Director of MIT’s new Center for Art, Science and Technology, where he has taught since 1990. His work is informed by his 30+ year involvement with traditional gamelan. He received a Fulbright in 1987, founded Gamelan Galak Tika in 1993, and has composed a series of groundbreaking compositions for gamelan & western instruments.

He has won numerous prizes for his works including the Goddard Lieberson Prize from the American Academy and the MIT Gyorgy Kepes Prize; and received commissions from multiple major organisations such as Carnegie Hall, Kronos Quartet, Rockefeller Multi-Arts Program, and Meet the Composer.

VajraVajra was commissioned by the Michael and Sonja Koerner Distinguished Visiting Composer with the University of Toronto fund. The first performance was on 12 March 2010 in Toronto.

As a Vajrayana Buddhist, composer Jonathan Harvey invokes the Buddhist symbol of Vajra (thunderbolt) in this work by dividing the work into four distinct sections of alternating directions: Ascent 1, Descent 1, Ascent 2 and Descent 2. This duality is complemented by the polarity between the meditative string music and the wilder music of the winds, piano and percussion. Further, the wind instrumentalists and pianist are given the additional task of exploring within and outside of their usual domains.

Harvey raises the notion of the ambivalence of opposites in music in his article Spiritual Music: “positive” negative theology?:

This is quite enlightening and it points toward his spiritual practice. In the next quote from the same article, Harvey elaborates his view of how music is related to Buddhist philosophy:

It is vital to reconcile the ideas of dichotomy as one-ness; opposites as of the same essence; and ambivalence as clarity. Harvey approaches the act of composition as a way of meditation, where it involves the seemingly impossible idea of focusing on the consciousness of emptiness. In Harvey’s words, "the tranquillity and clarity of the resulting mind so acquired breathes warmth. It’s not an empty emptiness, it’s an emptiness, which becomes full."

Programme notes by Chen Zhangyi

Jonathan Harvey Composer

Jonathan Harvey (1939–2012) was a chorister at St Michael’s College, Tenbury and a music scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge. He gained doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge and also studied privately with Erwin Stein and Hans Keller. An invitation from Boulez to work at IRCAM in the early 1980s resulted in eight realisations at the Institute, and two for the Ensemble Intercontemporain, including the celebrated tape piece Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco, Bhakti for ensemble and electronics, and String Quartet No.4, with live electronics. Harvey also composed for orchestra, chamber, solo instruments, as well as vocal works.

He was awarded the Charles Cros Grand Prix du Président for a lifetime’s work, becoming the first British composer to receive this coveted honour. In 2012 Harvey’s work Messages won the RPS Award for Large Scale Composition and in the same year he received a lifetime achievement award from the Incorporated Society of Musicians.

Biography adapted from Faber Music

Chen Fang-Chi, Dawn IIJirajet Jesadachet, violinHuang Yu-Ting, violinHsiao Chia-Chien, violaChen Pin-Jyun, celloWang Runan, double bassKim Dan Yi, fluteMathilde Marie Urga Villeviere, oboeJang Zion, clarinetIvy Fung Ai Wei, bassoonAmir Sharipov, french hornWei Tsan-Jung, trumpetXia Zhengwei, tromboneLim Hyunmi, percussionXu Xinyi, percussion

Jo Kondo, WordsKim Dan Yi, fluteJang Zion, clarinetKiew Shi Hui Charity, harpLim Hyunmi, percussionXu Xinyi, percussionTeh Jiexiang, piano

Evan Ziporyn, Eel BoneJirajet Jesadachet, violinHuang Yu-Ting, violinHsiao Chia-Chien, violaChen Pin-Jyun, cello

Jonathan Harvey, VajraJirajet Jesadachet, violinHuang Yu-Ting, violinHsiao Chia-Chien, violaChen Pin-Jyun, celloKim Dan Yi, fluteMathilde Marie Urga Villeviere, oboeJang Zion, clarinetIvy Fung Ai Wei, bassoonLim Hyunmi, percussionDominik Cambeis, piano

Liza Lim, The Heart's EarJirajet Jesadachet, violinHuang Yu-Ting, violinHsiao Chia-Chien, violaChen Pin-Jyun, celloKim Dan Yi, fluteJang Zion, clarinet

Up/down contour is the same. Consider a little triplet figure which falls in steps, yet the triplets rise as a whole, each triplet based on a higher starting point. You have a descending phrase which is rising. Ask of any of those little triplets, is it going up or down, and one has the same ambiguous answer; it is doing both. This is not possible in logic, music is necessarily always the opposite of logic, it destroys the exclusion.

Music’s ambiguities de-solidify reality, mirroring the discovery that objects and concepts are illusory. So music’s function is a kind of mirroring. For me this is the mystery of music—what music is. Why is it so endlessly fascinating? When I began to think about Buddhist philosophy, quite late in my compositional career, it dawned on me that it is music’s activity of imitating the mind which constitutes its fascination. One sees in music the “play” of mind, the veil of maya and its unveiling.

Musicians

Chen Zhangyi Conductor

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble

Chen Fang-Chi Dawn II

Liza Lim The Heart’s Ear

Jo Kondo Words

Evan Ziporyn Eel Bone

Jonathan Harvey Vajra

1hr (no intermission)

ProgrammeChen Zhangyi is a fervent advocate of new works - this concert marks his official debut with the Conservatory's New Music Ensemble. Earlier this year, their in-house concert Across the Atlantic was lauded as a "spell-binding performance" by the Straits Times. Zhangyi's conducting experience stems from his work as a composer, having conducted ensembles such as Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Lyric Opera, Re: mix, and Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.

His music has been described by BBC Radio 3 as “music from a voice of the future.” Zhangyi has also collaborated with ensembles such as London Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Orchestre de Bretagne, Imani Winds etc. This summer, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra would tour with his new work "of an ethereal symphony" in Europe, beginning with the Dresden Music Festival at Berlin Philharmonie.

Zhangyi read music at YSTCM and Peabody Institute. In 2014, he was conferred the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council, and recently joined YSTCM as Lecturer (Compositional Engagement).

Dawn IIScored for large ensemble, Dawn II describes the process of sunrise. This piece is programmatic in its conception. Beginning with a thin texture, just as the sun rises over the horizon, dawn gradually gives way to the morning sun, that is reflected musically in the thickening texture. An important element of this piece is the combination and contrast of conventional and extended sounds, which lends colour to the orchestration. This exploration of timbres is central to composer Chen Fang-Chi’s musical language.

Programme notes by Chen Fang-Chi

Chen Fang-Chi Composer

Chen Fang-Chi is a second-year composition major from Taiwan, currently studying at YSTCM under the tutelage of Associate Prof. Ho Chee Kong. Chen started learning the piano at the age of eight and started composing at the age of 12. At 15, she was accepted into Wu-Ling Senior High School, the most prestigious high school in her hometown, Taoyuan. She has been awarded the Taoyuan Student Composition Competition Prize and National Student Composition Competition Prize in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Before her studies at YSTCM, she held a recital with a full programme of her own works in 2013. Many of her works have since been performed in Singapore, including Soliloquy for solo bassoon (2014), Passacaglia for viola and cello (2014) and Discovery for brass trio and vibraphone (2015). Her latest collaboration is for a 15-piece orchestra consisting of members from the conservatory’s New Music Ensemble (NME) and Ensemble Multilatérale.

The Heart’s EarThe Heart’s Ear is a meditation on a fragment of a Sufi melody. A melody, “like a birdsong beginning inside the egg” (Rumi), which peeks its way out into a succession of musical spaces. Silence (inner listening) and song (longing) braid together and flow through the musical instruments. This work is dedicated to the Australia Ensemble.

Programme notes by Liza Lim

Liza Lim Composer

Liza Lim (b.1966, Perth) is one of Australia’s leading composers. She has received commissions and performances from some of the world’s pre-eminent orchestras, festivals and ensembles. Since 2008, she has been Professor of Composition and Director of the Centre for Research in New Music, CeReNeM, at the University of Huddersfield. Recent works include her fourth opera commissioned by Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Opera House in Cologne based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s exquisite ”cut-out” book, Tree of Codes; a violin concerto, Speak, Be Silent for the 40th-anniversary season opening of the Geneva-based Ensemble Contrechamps; and solo pieces that explore new areas of technique for instruments such as the bassoon (Axis Mundi) and double-bell euphonium (The Green Lion eats the Sun). Her compositions have been published by Casa Ricordi since 1989 with a catalogue of over 70 works.

Words“I am interested in words more than in sentences, in sentences more than in paragraphs, in paragraphs more than in a whole page. Thus, it could be said that in music I am more concerned with each sound than with the phrases they create.” – Jo Kondo

Words (1986) reflects the statement above, and in the music it is evident that much care was put into the minute details of the piece. Through the instruments of varied characters and tone qualities, Kondo makes use of timbral shifts in this work.

Associated with John Cage and Morton Feldman in the 1970s, Japan-born composer Jo Kondo's music displays more apparent similarities with Feldman's aesthetics. The parallel between the music of Kondo and Feldman can be drawn in the insular quality of repetitive structures. In Kondo's Words, the fluctuation of temporal space creates an irregular rhythm that can be analogous to hearing the unexpected twists and turns, probably of a foreign tongue. An extension of this idea of language would relate the instrumental attacks as consonants, while the longer sustained tones as vowels. Although interspersed with calm moments of stasis, there is generally a certain dance-like vitality and humour present in much of the work.

Completed 30 years ago in March 1986, the work was commissioned and premiered by Ensemble ARK, Tokyo.

Programme notes by Chen Zhangyi

Jo Kondo Composer

Jo Kondo (b. 1947, Tokyo) graduated from the composition department of Tokyo University of Arts in 1972. He spent a year in New York on a scholarship, then taught at various institutions in the USA, Canada and UK. He is Professor Emeritus of Music at Ochanomizu University in Tokyo and teaches at Tokyo University of Arts part-time.

In 1980, Kondo founded the Musica Practica Ensemble, a chamber orchestra devoted to contemporary music, and was artistic director of the group until its disbandment in 1991. He has written more than 130 compositions, ranging from solo pieces to orchestral and electronic works, which have been widely performed in Japan, North America and Europe and recorded on Hat Art, ALM, Fontec, Deutsche Grammophon and other labels.

In January 2012 Jo Kondo was made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. At the ceremony he was hailed as one of Japan's most distinguished composers.

Made up of conservatory students, this flexible and versatile group focuses exclusively on works of the last 40 years, mixing internationally recognised or iconic contemporary compositions with works by Singapore-based composers (including compositions by current students of the composition faculty).

All shows are held at the Esplanade Recital Studio.

For more details, visit www.esplanade.com/spectrum

Maximally Minimal by Quinnuance

10 Jul 2016, Sun, 5pm

SETTS #4

26 Sep 2016, Mon, 7.30pm

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of MusicOpus Novus10 Nov 2016, Thu, 7.30pm

SEEDSby Schola Cantorum Singapore Chamber Choir5 Mar 2017, Sun, 5pm

In View Of Distant Lands by YST Conservatory New Music Ensemble10 Apr 2016, Sun, 5pm

With Steve Reich kicking off this season of Spectrum 2016/17, we celebrate the complex textures, rhythms and beats of Minimalism. Come see how this movement that started in the lofts of downtown New York changed the world of music. Also, discover how church music of the past, as well as the various strains of gamelan music (which some consider to be a form of Minimalism from the East), influenced the music of today’s composers.

EsplanadePresents

Spectrum

UEN: 199205206G Information correct at time of print.

EsplanadeSG EsplanadeSingapore#esplanadewww.esplanade.com