Liminal brings chamber music into the 21st century
Published 5:37 pm, Friday, September 20, 2013
Composer. Once, the word evoked dreamy thoughts of Frédéric Chopin at the keyboard, hoping to stir his muse for yet another waltz or nocturne. But what does that label mean now, in Houston, in the second decade of the 21st century?
"A lot of today's composers never knew a time before MTV," composer and guitarist George Heathco said, as Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting for the Man" played in the background of a Montrose cafe. It seemed a fitting segue for percussionist Luke Hubley, who continued, "Composers are drawing from many different elements, and they have all grown up listening to rock, pop, film and video music."
Co-founders and co-artistic directors of Liminal Space Contemporary Music Ensemble, Hubley and Heathco reflected on musical shifts in advance of their second-season opening performance on Wednesday. The unusual program will feature new works for guitar and percussion with influences ranging from commercial television to Buddhism. Titled "Time and Tension: An Evening of Electro-Acoustic Music," many of the compositions also feature various electronic elements such as sampling, interactive technologies, fixed media and delays.
This is certainly not your grandfather's chamber music.
'Time and Tension: An Evening of Electro-Acoustic Music'
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Studio 101, 1824 Spring
Tickets: $10-$15; liminalspacemusic.com
"Chamber music is no longer a defined instrumentation," Hubley said. "It's not just a string quartet; it is much more flexible."
Last year Hubley and Heathco focused on one-composer chamber concerts with pickup musicians at a range of venues. That first season included a celebration of the John Cage centennial at Avant Garden, a concert of Frederic Rzewski's music at the Station Museum, another focused on David Lang at 14 Pews, and more. "In this project," Heathco explained, "we looked at many of our composer friends we like and whose aesthetics and ideas we respect."
At the heart of Wednesday's program is "Tension Studies," Samuel Carl Adams' ethereal work for percussion, guitar and live electronics that was written for the San Francisco group the Living Earth Show, one of the few other guitar and marimba duos in the United States. Heathco said the piece is closer to indie rock than to classical music.
Also on the program is Dutch "avant-pop" composer Jacob TV's comedic take on American infomercials, "The Body of Your Dreams."
"Jacob has a fantastic series he calls his boom-box pieces," Heathco said. "He takes chopped-up recordings, tape pieces, even infomercials for weight-loss products. This one is humorous and funny, but it's also gorgeous, and it feels serious. You find yourself listening to the announcers, and you are kind of drawn into this product."
Robert McClure's "Integrated Elements" for gyil (an African xylophone with wooden boards and hollow gourds acting as resonators) and fixed media rounds out the program, along with Nathan Davis' "Diving Bell" for triangles and live electronics and the world premiere of Hugh Lobel's "The Lotus City Songbook, Vol. 1," a work commissioned as part of Liminal's New Music Initiative.
"I think it tracks the process going from meditation, to a dance, to a wild experience afterward," Heathco speculated. "It's scored for marimba and electric guitar with a delay pedal.
"If you can believe it, it's probably the most traditional piece on the program."