The First Steps

Bob Hicks, a writer for Art Scatter, posted a blog entry about an initial meeting for Portland Taiko’s upcoming Ten Tiny Taiko Dances. He wrote:

Byron Au Yong, the Seattle composer who’s worked with Portland Taiko before, arrives with a score already in hand. He passes copies around the circle: it’s elegant, intricate notation.

I’m excited about Fifteen for violin and taiko to be premiered June 19-20, at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. The work is in 15 sections; each section should last for an eternity. Practically, each section lasts from 15 seconds to 5 sets of 15 seconds.

Previously, Hicks attended a recording session for Portland Taiko’s CD Rhythms of Change (available at Amazon.com). His in-depth writing included a section about my conducting Michelle Fujii’s work for violin and taiko called Slipping Through My Fingers:

The drummers are following the violinist, but they can’t hear her. They’re looking for compensating visual cues, and they’re a flick late. So Fujii asks Byron Au Yong, a Seattle-based composer who works internationally and has collaborated with several taiko groups, to stand out in the auditorium where everyone can see him. From a few rows up, he patiently motions entrances and keeps the beat: It’s all in the timing.

I’m excited to hear how Fujii and violinist Keiko Araki will interpret Fifteen, where the music is timeless, yet nonetheless timing is important.

 

FAREWELL Video

Check out Preview Video No. 1 of FAREWELL: A Fantastical Contemplation on America’s Relationship with China by ZebraVisual and Spectrum Dance Theatre.

Videographer Gabriel Bienczycki includes footage of the inspiring location of the Madrona Dance Studio and Lake Washington.

In addition, Donald Byrd and I speak about the project and there are excerpts from rehearsals.

 

Creativity Workshops

Up next, I teach two creativity workshops for Portland Taiko. This is an expansion of a workshop I taught at the North American Taiko Conference in Los Angeles over the summer.

The workshop is called Seven Ways to Develop Material. Here’s a description:

Do you have great ideas but need to know how to turn your thoughts into a composition? Learn seven ways to expand craft and creativity to create compelling music. These tools can help produce work that takes risks, develops material, and engages the audience. Together, we will expand the space between our ears to complete unfinished works or refine existing catastrophes.

There will be two workshops. The first workshop introduces seven ways to approach creating a musical performance. In between the two workshops, students will use these tools to develop musical material. In the second workshop, four to five participants will share their developed material.

In preparation for the first workshop, I’ve asked participants to come with:

1. A list of 20 ways music is used. For example one way would be wedding music.
2. A list of 20 audience types. For example one type would be farmers.
3. One musical idea you are working on, with, around, or in. The idea should be on paper and can be drawings, words, musical notation, or a combination of any/all of the above.

Seven Ways to Develop Material will cover the following:

1. Function What and who is the music for?
2. Concept How does the work access imagination?
3. Structure Does the form promote the concept?
4. Time Where does the performance take the audience?
5. Timbre When do in/significant moments happen?
6. Filter How does the music breathe?
7. Notation How can the work be remembered/documented most effectively?

I look forward to working with Portland Taiko on these Creativity Workshops.

 

Music with light bulbs and leaves

Last Saturday, Whim W’him held a benefit for the launch of Olivier Wever’s new company. The debut work, to be premiered at On the Boards in January 2010, will be the Three Seasons prompted by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

percussion set-up photo by Stuart McLeod

Press play for an audio sample (duration 1:11)
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I’ve been sketching ideas drawn from Vivaldi’s use of musical gestures. His phrases for violin and strings represent birds, thunder, and other sounds heard in nature. This prompts me to think about the nature of “nature.”

Each of Olivier’s nine dancers have an object they cannot live without. These include high heels, pillows, and light bulbs. I wonder if these factory-produced items affect a listener’s notions of what is natural.

• How do man-made and nature sounds inhabit the world?
• In the Digital Age, is the notion of nature broadened?
• What is the sound of light bulbs with leaves?

The audio sketch above is from a live performance held at Steve Jensen’s studio loft.

The music was created in collaboration with Sebastian Lange on amplified/processed violin, and percussionists Stuart McLeod and James Whetzel on amplified leaves, water bowl, pillows, high heels, water phone, and light bulbs. Jeff Walker recorded the performance and yours truly edited the sample above.

 

Stuck Elevator 2009 Demo

Aaron and I are busy revising Stuck Elevator for two readings in New York in mid-November. To that end, we created a demo from the September reading. This was recorded in the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at the Tisch School of the Arts by audio engineer Mark Aiken.

Already one of the songs, A River Running, is cut from the November version of Stuck Elevator. I am fond of the music, so I included it as part of this online demo.